Someone was telling me that when he sits in meditation he
feels restless and bored and eventually he gets up and stops meditating. What
exactly is boredom? Boredom is one of the many forms of suffering that can be
thrown up by the ego. Suffering always occurs when we believe something that is
not true. What is the ego’s purpose in creating suffering? The ego only has one
purpose and that is to ensure its own existence. To exist the ego creates
drama, any drama will do. Boredom in this sense is drama, it may not seem to be
that dramatic but it gets the job done. In a sense any form of suffering is
also a form of drama. A drama can be defined as a feeling or sensation that
leads you to believe in something that isn’t true. What the ego would like you
to believe is that when you experience what we call boredom you should do
anything in your power to avoid it. What are the possibilities involved in
avoiding boredom? In the example above we can stop meditating and switch on the
television, or read a book, have sex, eat, drink alcohol, take drugs, get into
an argument, kick the dog, steal something or kill or hurt someone. Depression
and many other so called mental illnesses are also options to avoid boredom. In
meditation it is possible to face and transcend ‘boredom’ safely. In this sense
meditation is when we become willing to face boredom without running away form
it. Boredom itself cannot hurt us unless we do something to avoid it. In a way
boredom is the ego’s most powerful weapon yet on the surface it may appear
quite innocuous. At the opposite pole to boredom is excitement which has a very
close link to boredom. These two, boredom and excitement are like an engine.
When boredom arises we look for anything that may alleviate it; we look for
something further along the spectrum towards excitement. Whatever stimulus we
may find that is opposed to boredom we cannot sustain so eventually we get
bored again, and so the cycle continues.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteCan you give a systematic description to transcend boredom please. Is meditation the only way out of it? Since the ego cannot get out of boredom on 'its own' as that would be like Blood washing Blood; then how can boredom come to an end, which seems to be a major cause of our suffering.
Thanks
The ego operates by creating illusions such as boredom. The problem is not really about how to get out of it rather it is to check the illusion until it no longer fools us. Meditation seems to be the only safe way to do this. I think that what you are really asking is 'is there a quicker or easier way of doing this'. If we want to build a house we must accept that it will take a certain amount of time. The amount of time it takes can be reduced by building the house correctly and in the right sequence but still it will take time. With boredom it comes down to do we understand the nature of meditation and what we are trying to achieve. Meditation is simply being in full agreement with all that is. Once this is understood where is the problem?
ReplyDeleteOMG! I have wondered about this for a while. I've been meditating for a year and recently I stopped and eventually I found myself bored with everything, even things that used to enjoy. I'm just not interested in a lot of things. It isn't depression so much. Mostly I feel disillusioned I guess. I started therapy again (I've suffered from depression in the past) Ofcourse, my doctor suggested meds and I complied for about 2 weeks. But somehow intuitively I knew it wasn't about numbing myself. This boredom or void I was feeling had to be faced. I started meditating again and I'm feeling better. When I start to feel bored or listless throughout the day, I say to myself 'this isn't real', and the feeling starts to dissipate. I don't always remember and sometimes I get swept into the drama of it, but I feel better.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for breaking this down.