THE FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS By Ajahn Sumedho - DharmaFlower.Net

new clothes, isn’t it? You have to seek special environments so thateverything is affirmed for you - safe and not threatening in anyway.HARMONYWhen there is Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and RightConcentration, then one is fearless. There is fearlessness becausethere is nothing to be frightened of. One has the guts to look at thingsand not take them in the wrong way; one has the wisdom tocontemplate and reflect upon life; one has the security and confidenceof sila, the strength of one’s moral commitment and the determinationto do good and refrain from doing evil with body and speech. In thisway, the whole thing holds together as a path for development. It is aperfect path because everything is helping and supporting; the body,the emotional nature (the sensitivity of feeling), and the intelligence.They are all in perfect harmony, supporting each other.Without that harmony, our instinctual nature can go all over theplace. If we have no moral commitment, then our instincts can takecontrol. For example, if we just follow sexual desire without anyreference to morality, then we become caught up in all kinds of thingsthat cause self-aversion. There is adultery, promiscuity and disease,and all the disruption and confusion that come from not reining inour instinctual nature through the limitations of morality.We can use our intelligence to cheat and lie, can’t we, but when wehave a moral foundation, we are guided by wisdom and by samadhi;these lead to emotional balance and emotional strength. But we don’tuse wisdom to suppress sensitivity. We don’t dominate our emotionsby thinking and by suppressing our emotional nature. This is what wehave tended to do in the West; we’ve used our rational thoughts andideals to dominate and suppress our emotions, and thus becomeinsensitive to things, to life and to ourselves.However, in the practice of mindfulness through vipassanameditation, the mind is totally receptive and open so that it has thisfullness and an all-embracing quality. And because it is open, themind is also reflective. When you concentrate on a point, your mind isno longer reflective - it is absorbed into the quality of that object. Thereflective ability of the mind comes through mindfulness, wholemindedness.You are not filtering out or selecting. You are just notingwhatever arises ceases. You contemplate that if you are attached toanything that arises, it ceases. You have the experience that eventhough it might be attractive while it is arising, it changes towardscessation. Then it’s attractiveness diminishes and we have to findsomething else to absorb into.The thing about being human is that we have to touch the earth, wehave to accept the limitations of this human form and planetary life.