"I guess the real key in any exploration of the not-self and not-self strategies, is that, in seeing that you have an open center, and that open center is, you know, dictating the way in which you've been making decisions in your life-- knowing that, understanding that, having that make sense to you **doesn't mean it stops**. It doesn't. You know, the mind is not on its own going to give up its power. It won't. It's not gonna say, "Ah! Oh, yeah, I'm living out this not-self strategy-- I'm gonna stop now." It doesn't do that. It *cannot* do that. The only thing that you can do with mind, is that you can simply take that authority away from it, by replacing it with your authority."
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The way I interpret authority now is by just imagining a little 8-ball sitting in my hand-- a little personal oracle. Basically you ask, yes or no, can I do this thing? And if it says no, no matter how much your mind fights that or is afraid of the answer, the choice is yours at that point. Granted that's different for everyone based on their constitution, but for me having splenic authority, I can tell right away if I want to do something or not. It actually happened tonight-- I had the time and ability to put some time into some paying work, which my mind (rather fearfully, I might add) said I really should do. But I just preferred to do something else entirely... which led to me listening to some HD lecture audios, incidentally.