Growth and Maturity
The term "ariya" is commonly translated as "noble." The Buddha, however, used the term "ariya" to refer to something more than noble. What he meant was a higher evolutionary level of consciousness which could be developed through a proper technique. It is a level beyond the normal. Therefore it is more meaningful to translate it as "super-normal," or better "Sublime," rather than "noble." Just as the aim of modern psychotherapy is to raise an "abnormal" person to a "normal" level of living, the aim of the Buddha was to bring the "normal" person to a "super-normal" level. It is very important to understand this distinction between "noble" and "supernormal" or "sublime." This supernormal level is a higher level of emotional and intellectual maturity. The purpose of Buddhist meditation is to grow to a higher level of emotional and intellectual maturity, beyond the normal, and to experience a degree of happiness and kindness beyond the normal. Buddhist meditation is a method of gaining emotional and intellectual maturity through the purification of mind. Samatha meditation is to gain emotional maturity, and vipassana meditation is to gain intellectual maturity.