Happy A-subha day! (every February 14th)

SN 54.8 I chant this sutta at least once a week.
This section is especially powerful:
SN ^54.8.16.3 - (3. five masteries of perception 1 of 5 )
SN ^54.8.16.4 - (4. five masteries of perception 2 of 5 )
SN ^54.8.16.5 - (5. five masteries of perception 3 of 5 )
SN ^54.8.16.6 - (6. five masteries of perception 4 of 5 )
SN ^54.8.16.7 - (7. five masteries of perception 5 of 5 )
The language in that sutta is terse and cryptic if you're not familiar with some technical terms,

so I'll just summarize the main idea.

Mastery of Perception

The idea is, turning lemons into lemonade.
Turning something toxic and poisonous, into delicious nutritious nectar.

Any sensory data that you come into contact with,

instead of following your base unenlightened impulses which lead to

greed, aversion, delusion, suffering,

you instead attune your perceptions to a skillful perception.

Turn a dangerous perception into a safe, useful, beneficial, enlightening perception.

February 14th

Greedy capitalist American Corporations,

preying on the delusional aspirations of lonely people looking for "love", romance, a soul mate, a "happily ever after",

created a holiday on Feb. 14th to pander,

to sell all manner of goods and services preying on these delusions of romance.

Mastery of perception means any time you see beautiful signs (subha nimittas) of these delusions arising through your six sense doors,

you instead pay attention to, follow [good] signs [samādhi nimittas] that lead to lucidity, knowledge, insight, freedom instead of bondage.

At the moment a deluded perception arises at any of the 6 sense doors,

you immediately replace it with a skillful perception.

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