re: christians convert investors to esoteric pract
Firstly, it is good to share these different views.
What I am trying to say is perception is both subjective and within a persons capacity to control or master.
How things are perceived is not about knowing external reality per se.
For me, the most important matter is how we perceive things affects the quality of one's experience in terms of the spiritual peace or harmony one has in their life.
I include a piece of text below, which comes from a certain tradition. However we are not here to promote that tradition, therefore it remains unnamed. The text is merely an example of a certain practice of mastering perception for the purpose of finding spiritual peace to the best of our abilities.
"This is how one is a person in training, someone following the Way.
"And how is one an attained one with developed faculties? There is the case where, when seeing a form with the eye, there arises in a person what is agreeable, what is disagreeable, what is agreeable & disagreeable. If he wants, he remains perceiving the agreeable in the presence of what is disagreeable. If he wants, he remains perceiving the disagreeable in the presence of what is agreeable. If he wants, he remains perceiving the disagreeable in the presence of what is agreeable & what is disagreeable . If he wants, he remains perceiving the agreeable in the presence of what is disagreeable & what is agreeable . If he wants — in the presence of what is disagreeable & what is agreeable — avoiding both, he remains equanimous, mindful and fully aware.
"When hearing a sound with the ear... When smelling an aroma with the nose... When tasting a flavor with the tongue... When touching a tactile sensation with the body... When cognizing an idea with the intellect, there arises in him what is agreeable, what is disagreeable, what is agreeable & disagreeable. If he wants, he remains perceiving the agreeable in the presence of what is disagreeable. If he wants, he remains perceiving the disagreeable in the presence of what is agreeable. If he wants, he remains perceiving the disagreeable in the presence of what is agreeable & what is disagreeable . If he wants, he remains perceiving the agreeable in the presence of what is disagreeable & what is agreeable . If he wants — in the presence of what is disagreeable & what is agreeable — avoiding both, he remains equanimous, mindful and fully aware.
