I am unable to forget the 25th saying of the Gospel of Thomas, an apocryphal gospel, which is "Jesus said, 'Love your friends like your own soul, protect them like the pupil of your eye.'" (Translated by Stephen Patterson and Marvin Meyer). The perception of a person that guides their will is formed by their surroundings. The most influential part of a person's surroundings is their friends.
For the sake of your perception and its influence on others though your will, protection of your perception is necessary. To protect your perception would be to willfully guide it on its path that you determine to be best. So, to guide your perception you would need to choose your friends wisely.
The first part of the saying shows that you must love your friends as if they are your own soul since it is relationships that makes us part of a larger whole that reduces fragmentation of God in God's image. So, your soul is very close to your friend's and comes from the same source, despite fragmentation within creation and time that separates you from them.
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