THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS By Ajahn Sumedho - DharmaFlower.Net

I could maintain the kind of poise and presence of a mature man insociety, I did not always feel that way. I still had very strongunresolved feelings and fears in my mind. It became apparent that Ihad to do something about that, as the thought that I might have tospend the rest of my life at the emotional age of six was quite a drearyprospect.This is where many of us in our society get stuck. For example,American society does not allow you to develop emotionally, tomature. It does not understand that need at all, so it does not provideany rites of passage for men. The society does not provide that kind ofintroduction into a mature world; you are expected to be immatureyour whole life. You are supposed to act mature, but you are notexpected to be mature. Therefore, very few people are. Emotions arenot really understood or resolved - their childish tendencies aremerely suppressed rather than developed into maturity.What meditation does is to offer a chance to mature on the emotionalplane. Perfect emotional maturity would be samma vayama, sammasati and samma samadhi. This is a reflection; you will not find this inany book - it is for you to contemplate. Perfect emotional maturitycomprises Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration. Itis present when one is not caught in fluctuations and vicissitudes,where one has balance and clarity and is able to be receptive andsensitive.THINGS AS THEY AREWith Right Effort, there can be a cool kind of acceptance of a situationrather than the panic that comes from thinking that it’s up to me toset everybody straight, make everything right and solve everybody’sproblems. We do the best we can, but we also realise that it’s not upto us to do everything and make everything right.At one time when I was at Wat Pah Pong with Ajahn Chah, I could seea lot of things going wrong with the monastery. So I went up to himand I said, ‘Ajahn Chah, these things are going wrong; you’ve got to dosomething about it.’ He looked at me and said, ‘Oh, you suffer a lot,Sumedho. You suffer a lot. It’ll change.’ I thought, ‘He doesn’t care!This is the monastery that he’s devoted his life to and he’s just lettingit go down the drain!’ But he was right. After a while it began tochange and, through just bearing with it, people began to see whatthey were doing. Sometimes we have to let things go down the drain inorder for people to see and to experience that. Then we can learn hownot to go down the drain.Do you see what I mean? Sometimes situations in our life are just thisway. There’s nothing one can do so we allow them to be that way; evenif they get worse, we allow them to get worse. But it’s not a fatalistic or