Re: What does it mean to become noble concerning passions?

["Martin" <martin@...>]

Dear Rawn,

You wrote:

>>In the end, your question is moot since by definition some one who 
would
think that such actions and attitudes would be positive has not 
reached
down within themselves very deeply at all. They have not reached down
deeply enough to reveal their essential self.<<

So that implies that there are in fact some qualities/traits which 
are universally considered to be "positive" or "negative" by the 
essential self. Now we know that personalities and temporally-
dependent mental functions are very individual, but what about a 
person's essential self? The very name and concept suggests that it 
may be *one* entity (for want of a better word) which everyone 
shares. You have explained how concepts/thoughts from our higher 
selves often have to be filtered through the lower mental functions 
and the personality with all its emotional attachments, but I assume 
that if someone has "reached down deeply enough to reveal their 
essential self" then what they perceive as positive and negative 
would be the same as what any other person on the planet who has 
reached the same level would interpret as being positive or 
negative. If this is true, then what you wrote about the 
categorization of character traits as either positive or negative 
being something personal to the individual confuses me, because 
*anyone* tapping into their essential self would come to the same 
conclusion.

Martin