A mood is a general background hum. It is the result of everything I have recently been believing, thinking, and doing, in an unfathomable mixture. It's like mixed paint. You can't easily discern the input colours and their proportions. It's like the background noise of an air-conditioning system or traffic. Could be loud; could be quiet. You also can't do anything about it. It is what it is. As I change the input, gradually the mood changes.
A signal is a sign that something has happened that needs attention:
- Fear is a sign that a bad thing might happen
- Anger is a sign that a bad thing is happening or has happened
- Guilt is a sign that I'm responsible for a bad thing
Signals are like alarms going off.
Signals call for forgiveness and action (including amends).
If signals are not heeded, they turn into states:
- Fear unheeded becomes anxiety
- Anger unheeded becomes resentment
- Guilt unheeded becomes shame
States are like alarms that are stuck on.
States can be dispelled by isolating the underlying fears, angers, and guilts and dealing with them as indicated above.
If fear, anger, guilt, anxiety, resentment, and shame are dealt with promptly, the underlying mood changes.
The ideal mood is complete neutrality. It's an empty canvas.
Then you can experience emotions, which are the kaleidoscope of responses to observations (external) and thoughts (internal).
Moods are not particularly interesting. Signals and states are not particularly interesting, either. They do need to be dealt with, but they're not what life is about.
Life is about the interaction that is available with the universe when I am neutral and not distracted by moods, signals, and states.
Life is quieter than these. Most people don't realise that life is always available, because all they're aware of is the moods, the signals, and the states.
Get quiet enough and you can hear people thinking thousands of miles away.