"being Bored" Is A Hoax You Play On Yourself

[Azrael]

Hey, I just had a very insightful meditation I wanted to share with you guys. Take the time to read it, it's worth it.

So, I just came home from swimming and had my daily meditation. I currently increase my normal routine from 60 to 90 minutes so I was a little bit discouraged because I knew I would probably face some pains. However, it turned out differently.

Because of the prior swimming I was instantly relaxed and into the zone. As a matter of fact I started to fade every few seconds from bring conscious to falling asleep, so I decided to investigate the fading. I sit very erect and still in my meditation, so when I fade I lose a little stability and instantly come back. This is very interesting and went on for I'd say 40 minutes.

In that time span I put some awareness into it and it was quite amazing to experience fading away so consciously. It's like you get sucked away and then pulled out of something to be there again. With that came intense hallucinations, like I never had in a meditation with eyes open.

When coming back I saw a couple of objects for about 3-5 seconds like they were literally in front of me and then they went away. Quite shocking and fascinating, I was probably in a hypnagogic kind of state.

After these 40 minutes it ended in very clear super high focused awareness. Very physical, while my body was sleeping. Was kinda nice to experience, I have to say. Then after some time I got this normal sense of being bored that sometimes comes up in meditation. I thought about what I still want to do today and so on.

And then it struck me out of nowhere. I was very aware of being bored. I saw it coming up, felt it and then saw it fading away. While this was happening I had a quite clear picture of the components of boredom. It was like a very, very subtle physical sensation of being frustrated, a little fear, a little anger and maybe some disgust. Very, very, subtle but with high awareness I could sense it very clearly. Also, mentally I had thought streams about the future.

And then it just occurred to me that boredom is nothing else then you torturing yourself out of no reason, just because of social conditioning. It became very clear to me that there is nothing negative to trigger this boredom. It just comes up because of lack of distraction, automatically. And has no purpose whatsoever. It does not protect you from anything, nothing. It was just implanted into you back then because it is the most normal thing in western cultures. We are bored all the time.

Think back when you were a little kid, how everything was an adventure. All the grown ups around you were bored, but not you. You could go to the supermarket and it was amazing to see all these things there. You also had no feeling of time in you that could bring boredom up. You had lots of emotions, but not subtle self-torture because of no new stimulation. After some time you just adopted this from friends and family because it is so common when your ego builds up.

But that's a hoax. There is actually nothing really that is bad about no new stimulation. It is just your expectation that there always has to be something new. This really lifted me up. You maybe want to explore that next time you feel bored, it's very subtle but significant. It destroys a lot of the inner peace you could have. Like really a fucking lot. Just think about how often you have to wait for something and are bored.

So any ways, just wanted to share this. Look into it, it's worth it. Tell me what you think about it. You Bored?

Cheers, Arik

PS: It's really astonishing to see how much we tend to fuck ourselves up because of no reason. And nobody notices that, never. Or does something about it. We just give it to the new members of society. Man...

[99th_monkey]

 noticed I'm the most bored standing in lines, so used that to really try what you did during meditation, there was "strange" experience during this but the thoughts of fear/anxiety of social concerns come up, like self image all kinds of stuff trying to get action going. cool stuff. :)

[Azrael]

@Pinocchio Thanks for your input. Makes a lot of sense to me. Nicely worded!

[Richard Alpert]

thanks. Im on holidays now, and today have just read and meditated. And walked outside like 30min.

Bored out of tits, but had a good meditation session about an hour ago. Yea, i think boredom isnt something we should be afraid or avoid, it is common feeling in our everyday life.

[Ayla]

Actually, boredom comes after we have been stuffing ourself with all kinds of distraction, but the deeper layer of it, is the complete unwillingness to feel our emotions. As noted by OP, boredom is not empty. It has flavors to it. It is a protection mechanism Mind uses so that we cannot go inside.

@Arik , I'm sorry, are you sure it is mediation you're doing there? It sounds to me there's way too much importance going into whatever comes up during a process that is meant to empty you. 

If you asked me, I'd advise you to only do 20 minutes per day...

[jjer94]

1 hour ago, Pinocchio said:

And of course that's really why I keep posting on this forum...

 

.........

Don't forget attention!

Edited March 25, 2016 by jjer94

[Ayla]

17 minutes ago, jjer94 said:

.........

Don't forget attention!

@Pinocchio and distraction...

[Neo]

This isn't quite on topic but I thought I would share, it's about what you said,

Quote

I had a quite clear picture of the components of boredom. It was like a very, very subtle physical sensation of being frustrated, a little fear, a little anger and maybe some disgust. Very, very, subtle but with high awareness I could sense it very clearly

I'm befriending some wild birds in the garden. I don't have long to do it because I'm moving soon and also I only get a window of opportunity to do this on coffee breaks.

I noticed today, the main friendly bird seemed frightened that I was holding something metal in my hand and I was thinking, Why is the bird frightened of something he doesn't know what it is. How does he "know" it frightens him?

And I started imagining that in your field of view, there might be a system of recognising things but another layer of understanding where it was just necessary to know if something was safe or frightening.

Stay with me here. lol

So, talking about layers of awareness, not in the visual field but awareness in the brain now, there could be "layers" of emotions or feelings, say "boredom" and these could be mapped to underlying more basic emotions, simplifying in each layer. For example, there could be a layer of feelings about what will kill you or what will aid survival. Break it right down?

Does this ring true with anyone?

 

[Azrael]

3 hours ago, Ayla said:

I'm sorry, are you sure it is mediation you're doing there? It sounds to me there's way too much importance going into whatever comes up during a process that is meant to empty you. 

Hey @Ayla thanks for your view on the topic, makes sense to me! However, my normal meditation doesn't look like the one I described above at all. Normally I'm quite focused and not in such a trance where I'm fading. I just worked out before this meditation quite heavily and so I was tired like nuts, that's why I drifted so much.

I gotta say, was quite astonishing to experience. Thanks anyway!

[Azrael]

2 hours ago, Neo said:

Does this ring true with anyone?

The concept of layers makes a lot of sense from a neurological standpoint, I guess. In my computer science studies I came across neurological networks that use the idea of neurons in layers to do tasks like recognizing objects in a picture or drawing like Dali - like humans. This is pretty amazing stuff!

Edited March 25, 2016 by Arik

[Hardik jain]

@Arik Hey, so if I want to get rid of boredom what do I do? Distract myself with stimulation or just allow myself to get bored. For example - when I get bored I go for a movie or do some other activity but I guess this is just me getting rid of boredom temporarily. What do I do if I want to get rid of it permanently?  Maybe allow myself to feel it fully without distracting myself with some sort of stimulation?

[Leo Gura]

I find boredom disappears after a good 50 to 100 hours straight of doing nothing. Boredom is like a chemical addition to stimulus. It's like taking heroin. When you first get off, you have terrible withdrawals, but after you get off, it feels great and you can't understand why you had withdrawal symptoms at all.

The problem is that we live in a totally over-stimulated society. 10,000 years ago, life was a lot more "boring" and people didn't notice boredom the way we do today.

That's why enlightenment was a lot easier 10,000 years ago. People could just sit around in nature and automatically get enlightened. Nowadays that's impossible because everyone is busy doing stupid shit that their ego has convinced them is important.

[Hardik jain]

@Leo Gura FUCK YOU LEO. YOU'RE A GENIUS.

[Waveenergy]

On 3/25/2016 at 0:37 PM, Arik said:

Hey, I just had a very insightful meditation I wanted to share with you guys. Take the time to read it, it's worth it.

So, I just came home from swimming and had my daily meditation. I currently increase my normal routine from 60 to 90 minutes so I was a little bit discouraged because I knew I would probably face some pains. However, it turned out differently.

Hi Arik, 

Thank you for sharing your experience. 

I experienced a similar heightened awareness today after swimming a kilometer, meditating on the train ride home, and mindfully walking slowly through the rain to my home. I think that the aerobic exercise involved in swimming may have contributed significantly to the phenomenon you have described. I personally believe that exercise is as important, if not more important, for the brain than for the physical body. @Leo Gura I'd be interested to here your opinion on aerobic exercise and heightened mindful awareness. 

[Mary]

Thanks for the awesome insight. I'll try to keep that in mind, next time I got bored and wanted to distract myself with internet, TV,...

[Harry]

On 31/03/2016 at 6:38 PM, Leo Gura said:

I find boredom disappears after a good 50 to 100 hours straight of doing nothing. 

Without sleep?