One of my Zen teachers once spoke about "the dog in the basement." This rather wild and uncontrollable creature is the part of our persona that we prefer to keep confined and out of the sight of others. We commit it to some dark corner of our house and hope that it never gets loose. After all, negative things are loud and embarrassing. And we don't know what might happen if this particular dog were to get out in the open, into the bright sunlight.

Gary Thorp, Sweeping Changes