It is easy to believe that the self is unknowable. To accept a vague sense of helplessness as it shirks responsibility. After acceptance — though you must subject yourself to swings of emotion, of people, of horrid realities — you’ll feel justified to curl up inside and avoid everything. And there’s a ton of fun shows. Still, almost like snuffing out a firework before it ever launched. It isn’t pretty stuff, these type of beliefs. What’s the alternative?
It’s worth postulating that everything has a cause and effect, including emotion or desire. Schopenhauer famously stated that we cannot will what we will, but I think this is due to ignorance, not due to an immutable human condition. If you have enough knowledge, will falls into place; the issue lies with how we don’t seek this knowledge, know it exists, etc.
Here’s one such artifact: Emotion appears irrational due to time delays. Some bouts of anger come right after being wronged, other emotions curdle inside until night. Or until years; it will surface. Accumulated gunk throughout a lifetime. And depending on how much gunk you’re drowning in, it’ll be hard to find the source/cause, let alone clean it up as more falls on your face. Just because the reason isn’t immediately obvious does not mean it’s not there.
The beauty here is that, if all emotions have their causes, what follows is one can not only remove the previous causes, but introduce new ones: evoke new emotion to wash the old out. From the many streams available — information streams, streams of people, the stream of consequences from your actions, the stream of consciousness in your head — you can refine and decline to your benefit. It all depends on the streams you let in, and with what quantity.
Although emotion and will (things of spirit/soul), are incomprehensible at the moment, a purified stream will cleanse you and nudge you until such things are obvious. If one hopes to experience bliss, it’ll require some conviction to no longer let in what at first seems benign but actually becomes malignant. It’s up to your discretion which streams are hidden destroyers.