Mature effort

The mature effort we find after the mature speech, mature action, and mature livelihood in the classical description of the eightfold path. This to me makes sense as I like to perceive the path as one of maturation each aspect growing out of the previous aspects. The path begins with the corrected view that there is suffering we step upon the path, where we set up a corrected intention. This being gentleness and care towards our experience, this intention as it continues to be corrected and matures leads on to compassion, joy, and equanimity. This intention feeds into the quality of our speech, action, and choice of livelihood. It is a kind of sensitizing to ourselves and our environments.  We become aware of our own vulnerability and our desire not to feel pain, and wanting pleasure.

So not wanting to feel pain and desiring pleasure is the ground for Mature effort to arise. It is in this process of being aware of our vulnerability, the push and pull of pleasure and pain and in its extreme version fight and flight mode. This maturing, being with and understanding our vulnerability, becoming aware of our stories which have grown out of the unstable ground of the human sensory world. We begin to stabilize into a mature effort, it is a sense of becoming stable and not being pushed around by the polarities of life. This is the ground for mature mindfulness to arise, a sense of being with the whole of the experience. It is the ground for equanimity to grow and mature.

A mature effort is not so much a doing as learning to be with experience and become intimate with our reactivity. As we mature in relation to becoming familiar with the reactivity. This steadiness of being with leads on to a mature skillful mindfulness arising, which leads on to a mature samadhi, one that is not efforted and based on an object, which arises from wisdom in relation to our reactivity and our freedom from reactivity, which gives rise to joy.

*By corrected I mean through being with our experience our views begin to attune to our direct experience, as our view becomes corrected the other aspects of the path begin to mature from an ignorant position towards one of wisdom.