More on Demonic States

 While reading Surangama Sutra's chapter on demonic states of mind arising from sense perception, a lot of things come to mind. I sometimes wonder what is the correct "balance" between trying to overcome the temptations of the senses and not attaching to the overcoming itself. In one's day to day life, one must continually interact with phenomena as phenomena. For instance, if I am seeing the sign for the black Friday sale, I am truly going to see it in all its enticements. To "turn away" from the sign thinking that this will help me overcome my temptation to shop..is this truly spiritual practice? Or is it perhaps more "spiritual" for me to not turn away from phenomena, even if it's tempting to become attached to it? I believe that there is a middle path between these two extremes of wanting to indulge the senses and trying to dull the mind from senses altogether.
   For myself, I have found that the strong sense of "I" is the real heart of temptation, not the phenomena itself. When I am attached to the sense of a self that wants to satisfy itself, all the phenomena become a source of vexation, because the self attaches some meaning to the phenomena. On a subconscious level, the phenomena are not just seen "as they are" but become either additions or subtractions to this sense of self. If I am looking at the irritation as coming from the self, I am not seeing the phenomena for what it is, but I am attaching instead to the associations I create with respect to it. To see something for what it is...what does this mean other than to see it as not fettered with one's personal meanings around it?