"Aren't "good" and "bad" qualities imposed on things by the mind?"

yes - that is the point -- this constant striving toward good things and avoiding bad ones is what engages the mind, attaches it to the ephemeral world.

Of course I am being facetious in this example to illustrate the point. The point being, the good and bad are actually non existent in reality, it is our attachment to a preference (usually to the good things) that keeps us in a swoon.

A masochist, for example will be attached to unpleasantness,, yet it is still attachment.

Only through some disappointment/disillusion by our projection of hapiness do we begin to actually wake up. Pain or boredom/apathy, presents the opportunity for us to see beyond. I think apathy is best, because pain still contains within it the hope of dream fulfillment. Apathy is the dream realized and it's reward disappointing.

The reason for this great Spiritual renaissance in the west now is apathy, not pain. We have ascended to levels of comfort and affluence unimagined, yet we feel a huge inner lack.

In the east, where affluence is just becoming a reality, they still hold alive the dream.