Beyond Boredom: A Spiritual Journey Into Stillness

Are you tired of feeling… tired of everything? Join us for a soul-nourishing talk that explores boredom not as a curse but as a sacred invitation. We'll explore how spiritual wisdom can transform moments of emptiness into doorways to deeper presence, creativity, and meaning.

Transcript

So,

Hello dear people,

Hello to the 25% that survived this guided meditation.

The volume is soft,

OK,

Try to speak a bit louder.

Welcome to this unique opportunity we give ourselves every week to stop the rush,

Hold hands and walk the path together,

Not just as individuals but also as a united consciousness that is asking and answering itself and evolves while harnessing the tension between the question and the answer.

So this is your opportunity to shine and to contribute to this meeting by sharing your questions,

Your insights,

Your doubts,

Anything that you feel that may help us and you grow.

And today's excuse for our meeting was brought to this table by this fair lady,

Her name is Carly,

And we are invited to discuss boredom,

What it is,

Why is it there and how can we use it on our path.

So,

Your questions will guide the pace and the depth,

Happy to hand over the microphone to you.

Who would be the first one to jump into the water today?

Bored with what,

Carly or who?

Yeah,

If you're bored of Carly,

Let me know,

Find somebody else.

Bored of anything,

Anything,

If you feel troubled by the fact that you're bored and there's not enough excitement or whatever,

Let's talk about it.

Let's understand what does it mean.

Unless you have a better subject to talk about.

I'm not,

I don't have any agenda here.

I think the reason the topic of boredom came up is because I was talking to my son recently and he quite exaggeratedly said,

My biggest fear is boredom.

And this doesn't really make sense to me.

I don't understand this boredom.

Maybe I'm getting old and it's the new generation thing.

But how can you be scared of boredom?

Yeah,

It's a good question.

So,

What is boredom?

Boredom is our basic resistance to life as it unfolds,

Right?

Especially as you are young in age,

We see around us now that the attention span of younger people grows shorter and shorter as the TikTok clips go shorter and shorter as well.

You can only hold your attention to five or ten seconds.

That's it.

Then you flip to the next video.

You know,

We wrote a book,

But I think there is no audience for books anymore.

Nobody reads books.

Who has the attention span to read a book?

So,

Boredom is not just experienced as one of life's emotions that we are invited to experience from time to time,

But people actually dread it.

And let's think about it.

Why do people dread boredom?

Again,

Can you sense it?

Boredom is you believing that whatever is happening right now is not enough.

Something else more exciting,

More fulfilling,

More adrenaline-filled should happen in order for you to be satisfied,

Content,

Happy,

Fulfilled,

Whatever.

It could be mundane.

The book is not a good example.

The video clip that I'm currently looking at is not funny enough or stupid enough or whatever,

And it could be manifested in our relationships.

People just jump from one relationship to the other and are unwilling to really go deep in any relationship because something else more exciting is probably waiting on the other side of the door.

Formal,

No?

Fear of missing out.

Fear of missing out.

It's like a pandemic.

I remember when I was younger,

I used to feel like every time I was doing something that I was really enjoying,

Which is usually,

You know,

Hanging out with my boyfriend or something,

Then.

.

.

You had a boyfriend before me?

Yeah.

What?

Many.

And you think,

Oh,

You know,

I don't want this to end because,

You know,

I don't want to.

.

.

And then it dawned on me that I was missing out on the actual experience that I was trying to,

You know,

Hold on to because I was thinking about it ending all the time.

And the fact that I was going to be,

You know,

Bored or,

You know,

Not enjoying my life as much as I am right now,

Not in that moment realizing that I wasn't actually taking the time to enjoy the moment.

Yeah.

So the mind is just rushing to the future,

Hoping for a better reality or dreading a worse reality.

But is not willing to be present in the present moment in what actually is happening.

This is boredom,

No?

What it is as it is,

Is not good enough.

Something else should manifest.

So already many questions.

Let's hit.

.

.

Barbara says,

I have a friend who plans their next vacation while they're on their current vacation.

Exactly.

Okay,

So Jesse asks.

.

.

Okay,

I'm just gonna.

.

.

Jesse,

I'll get back to you in a second.

Okay.

All right.

So Barbara says,

Is boredom part of feeling like you lack something?

And then Jesse says,

My question isn't so much about boredom,

But working with craving and aversions.

How do we work with these?

Oh,

That's a completely different discussion.

Let's focus on boredom.

And if we have time,

We'll go back to your question.

Remember.

I'm sure they all relate to each other.

Pandra is saying,

Being scared of boredom is like being afraid of your thoughts.

Yeah.

Or you're not just your thoughts,

But your existence in the present moment.

And Angel says,

Like not enjoying Sunday because you don't want to go to work on Monday.

Exactly.

And Jesse,

By the way,

Says that they love your books,

But maybe too much because they tend to overanalyze versus feel.

Currently,

I love your book,

Currently reading it.

I love books,

But maybe too much because I tend to overanalyze versus feel.

Which book are you reading now?

Probably Available to Love.

Available to Love.

Anyways,

So being afraid of our thoughts,

Not just our thoughts,

Our very existence in the present moment.

We are addicted to the noise.

Listen carefully.

We are as humanity.

Don't take it personally.

Addicted to the noise.

And if there is no noise,

We create noise.

Just so that we don't have to face silence.

It's an addiction like drugs.

Noise creates a meaning for us.

It creates some kind of destruction,

Existential destruction.

So we don't have to deal with the silence.

We don't have to meet the silence.

We are so identified with the noise.

It generates an answer to the question,

Who am I?

I am the one that is experiencing all that noise and all the things that happen to me and all the things that may happen to me.

We are lost in that noise.

It's just like a drag addict that is shooting another,

How do you call it?

Hit.

Hit.

Just so he won't need to experience the pain,

The emotional pain that he is trying to run away from.

This is our relationship with silence and noise.

Boredom is basically noise level going dangerously low.

It might not be able to distract us enough.

So immediately we go out and we turn the volume on somehow.

We create a drama or whatever.

We do something just to avoid silence.

That's postponing the inevitable.

It's inevitable.

Silence is our home.

Silence is what you are when you are grown beyond this addiction.

And yes,

Like any addiction,

It's really scary to be without the drug.

You think you're going to be lost.

Your life depends on it.

You think you can't survive without it.

It's really scary to face silence and let go of that reflex to run away from it.

Silence is your home.

And as long as you keep distracting yourself,

You are homeless.

This is a sentence I've never said before.

Do you see what I'm saying?

Why are you afraid of being alone?

Why are you afraid of the silence?

It's the same question.

Why are you afraid of being alone?

If you cannot be comfortable in your own self,

How can anybody be comfortable with you?

Why do you expect other people to do what you cannot do?

To be a friend to you if you don't or can't be a friend with yourself.

If you can't enjoy your own company.

What's the difference between being alone and being lonely?

Being alone is a physical reality.

Sometimes you are with people,

Sometimes you are without people.

Being lonely is the perspective of you experiencing life.

You can be lonely in a crowd,

Correct?

Because you don't feel connected.

So,

Loneliness again is that inner rejection to the silence within.

No,

No,

No.

I don't want to be alone.

I don't want to experience myself as I am.

I don't want to dive into that silence.

It's like an abyss.

God knows what is hiding there in the cellars of my soul.

In the cellar of my soul.

God knows.

I don't want to go there.

And I tell you,

If you want to be lord of the manor,

You have got to visit your cellars and ventilate them.

Open the window,

Open the door,

Let light come in.

You cannot keep closed dungeons in your castle if you truly want to be the lord of the castle.

You can't keep avoiding yourself.

Distracting yourself from the actual work that is waiting for you.

You know,

Looking for one comfort and then the other.

One joyful experience and then the other.

And avoiding true reflection.

I'm not saying that it's not right to enjoy life.

Definitely,

Go,

Enjoy.

But don't make it a necessity that without it you are lost.

How do you know that you are free?

When you are as comfortable alone as you are with other people.

You know,

Some people it works the opposite.

Some people are afraid of being alone,

Some people are afraid of being in public.

A mingle.

If that is balanced,

You know,

You are as comfortable at home when you are alone and when you are in the crowd.

Then you know you are balanced.

So,

In that sense,

Boredom is an opportunity.

How come?

When you feel that you are bored,

You know,

And life is just not exciting enough at the present moment.

Good.

Use that.

Use that as an opportunity to dive deeper.

Okay,

So,

There is no distraction now,

Nothing that I can use to avoid observing myself,

Connecting to myself.

So,

If there is nothing out there to distract me,

I'm choosing to dive deeper,

Deeper and deeper and deeper.

Think about it.

It's much easier to make that choice when there is nothing to distract you.

If you are out there in a company of people,

You know,

Enjoying life,

Whatever,

You cannot just sit and meditate and reconnect.

That would be too weird.

But if you are bold,

That's a fantastic opportunity.

Use it.

Instead of creating a distraction,

You know,

Another TikTok,

Whatever.

Clip.

What else?

Many questions.

What do you suggest to do instead of turning to the distraction?

Be.

Instead of doing something,

Be.

Just be.

Be.

Dive into the being of yourself.

You know,

Develop that meditative state of mind.

What is a meditative state of mind?

You know,

Osho once said that meditation will not happen when you sit to meditate.

It will never happen when you sit to meditate.

Why?

Because when you sit to meditate,

There is a doer and there is a desired consequence of an action.

That's not how meditation works.

There is a doer,

There is an action,

And there is a desired result.

Forget about it.

No,

Meditative state of mind is spontaneous awakening to your true self.

And that can only happen when you are connected to your being.

You're not trying to do anything or to achieve anything.

Dive deeper into the silence,

Into the mystery of your own self.

Dive deeper.

Yes,

It's scary.

And you will be without your fix.

So what?

The day silence becomes more attractive to you than the noise is the day that you know that you are free.

Who is writing that on the textbooks?

The day silence is more attractive than the noise.

Questions?

So Mary Lou said,

When I am in silence,

My thoughts take over.

Pause.

You give that power away.

Thoughts cannot take over.

That's one of the greatest realizations of people on the spiritual path.

Thoughts have no power.

They cannot take anything.

It's like watching a movie in the cinema.

You can choose whether you are being carried away by the drama,

Then you call it entertainment,

And you can choose just to remind yourself it's not real.

It's just a movie,

25 frames per second.

It's not real.

It's just a dance of light on a silver screen.

I don't like horror movies.

And if I ever were to watch one,

That's how I get through it.

Reminding myself it's not real.

It's not blood,

It's ketchup.

Same with your mind.

When thoughts come gushing through your mind,

You,

The observer,

Have that choice.

Do you get carried away by those thoughts into the drama,

Into the past,

Into the future?

Or are you able to sit and observe the thoughts without being carried away?

That is a meditative state of mind.

Observing without reacting.

That's it.

And then you realize thoughts cannot take over.

They have no power.

Thoughts have no power.

They cannot do anything.

Yes,

They are there,

Obviously.

Even enlightened people think.

But they are not identified with this endless stream of thoughts.

And when a gap between those thoughts appears,

They are able to recognize that and cherish that just as much as they cherish their own thoughts.

Good?

Good question.

What else?

I remember the last silence retreat we had.

One of the exercises was to sit and just be.

And I don't know really how much time passes.

And I sat there without trying to move very little,

Like an open-eye kind of meditation.

And it was probably one of the most profound meditations that I did.

Because it was really just an exercise in just being.

You know,

And then all these stimuli are coming at you,

Like,

Oh,

Okay,

Now the shade is going away and the sun's coming out.

And now I'm going to sit here and get too hot.

And then,

You know,

And then all the things go through.

And you just sit there and be and let those thoughts pass by.

And,

Yeah,

It was very interesting and profound.

This is what you're talking about,

Right?

Only when you allow yourself not to escape,

You can recognize that you are never threatened by changing events.

Do you see what I'm saying?

It's like a catch-22.

Usually we are so threatened,

So we escape.

But only when you allow yourself not to escape,

Then you recognize that what you are trying to escape from is just an illusion.

Nothing is ever threatening your existence as consciousness.

No matter what happens.

Especially boredom.

So,

Annie is saying,

So looking for distraction is bad,

Then?

You know the answer to this question.

On the right path,

There is no good and bad.

It's not a question of good or bad.

We don't judge reality in those terms.

The only criteria that we use if we have to divide reality into two is not good or bad,

But is it ignorant or knowledgeable?

Is it based on ignorance or on knowledge of your true nature?

So if you're trying to avoid silence because you believe it's too threatening,

Then of course it's based on ignorance,

Lack of self-knowledge.

Don't judge it as good or bad.

It's irrelevant.

What else?

So back to Pandora's comment about the loneliness.

Aren't we creatures of connection?

And society today is designed to keep us disengaged.

Isn't that why there is a loneliness epidemic?

So now we're all distracting ourselves.

It's a pandemic for sure.

And if you feel lonely,

You definitely need to do something about it.

And the first thing I would recommend to do is become a good friend of yourself.

And the deeper the relationship you have with yourself,

The sooner you realize you can never be alone.

It's an illusion.

Loneliness is an illusion.

It's like a leaf on a tree feeling alone because it doesn't feel connected to the rest of the tree.

It only is concentrated and focused on its own separate existence.

But it doesn't recognize this is a part of a tree or feel any connection to the rest of the leaves.

That's an illusion.

So the sooner you realize you are an organic part of this creation,

Just as the leaf is an organic part of the tree,

The sooner you realize that you are available to go and reconnect with other people.

But this time not because you feel lack and need,

But because you are an expression of wholeness.

And the way to express that is to connect with other people.

And fill their void.

Shed light into their darkness.

You are not alone.

You cannot be alone.

But it starts with you befriending yourself.

Befriending,

Right?

What else?

Annie says,

I say that because you've nailed the point repeatedly with no path or suggestions otherwise.

I think I did something good,

But I'm not sure what was.

We're bad.

Well,

Earlier Annie said,

And we get there.

That was related to,

I asked you,

If we don't distract ourselves,

Then what are we doing?

And you said,

Just be.

Just be.

Yeah,

If we are both,

Good!

Grab this opportunity.

And dive deeper,

Deeper into the silence with no distractions.

Dive deep.

Who am I?

Beyond the noise,

Beyond the distractions.

Yeah,

This boredom can be an elevator,

A slingshot to self-realization.

Next time you are bored,

Bless your luck.

Jennifer said,

I've just joined,

But I have boredom and burnout at the same time.

Those seem very related to me.

Boredom and burnout?

So boredom we already identified,

No?

It's our existential resistance to life as it manifests.

And apparently with not enough white noise,

That would safely cover the truth about our own nature.

What is burnout?

Burnout is me living in the gap.

Burnout is me living in the gap.

What gap?

The gap between what is and what I believe it should have been.

This is where I live.

I constantly believe that the reality that I experience is a mistake.

It's a terrible mistake.

Things that happen should not happen the way they do.

Constantly frustrated,

Angry,

Violent.

This burns out all the reservoirs of prana,

Of life energy,

In you.

Let me make it extremely clear for you.

Burnout is not a consequence of the situation that you are in.

No matter how stressful it might be.

Or demanding or challenging.

Burnout is a consequence of you unable to truly accept the situation as it is.

Embrace the situation as it is.

Love the situation as it is.

You resisting,

Avoiding,

Manipulating.

Believing this is not good.

It should change.

And before it is changed,

I cannot be happy.

I cannot be fulfilled.

This state of mind is what causes burnout.

Yes,

Take responsibility.

Otherwise,

You keep blaming reality for your misfortune.

And place yourself in the position of a victim.

There is no way out of that.

And if you want to truly close the gap,

Embrace life,

There is a whole discussion about how to live without suffering on my Insight Timer page.

Look for it.

Listen to it.

I guarantee transformation.

But only if you truly dedicate yourself to closing the gap.

What do you say?

More questions?

If Sterling is trying to communicate with us,

The message is not getting through.

I'm thinking a small child got a hold of their phone.

What do you think so far?

Do you see the difference between boredom and burnout?

Yes,

I guess they are pretty close by nature.

Maybe burnout is just a more extreme version of me resisting reality as it is.

Or maybe more chronic.

I was going to say that if you feel burned out,

Then there's probably a desire or an attraction to distract yourself,

To feel less busy or overwhelmed.

So it's almost like you're swinging like this and then you get to a place where you get so used to being stimulated that when there isn't that,

Then you feel bored.

And then,

You know,

Kind of like what happens when you eat sugar and then your sugar crashes and then you feel like you have to eat sugar again.

Yeah,

It's an addiction,

Like an addiction to sugar,

Addiction to drug,

Addiction to the drama.

It's the same.

And like any addiction,

It starts with you recognizing,

Yeah,

I'm an addict.

Declare it.

I'm an addict.

There's no shame in that.

But if you want to grow beyond addiction,

You need to first recognize that you are addicted.

And then consciously allow situations that doesn't carry that level of distraction.

Allow them to be there.

Love them just as much as you love the excitement and the distractions.

The more you allow that,

The more comfortable you feel with life without drama.

Life without noise.

And as you grow accustomed to that,

You recognize,

Oh,

This is my home.

This is my home.

Silence is my home.

And when you feel silence as an expression of your true self,

I tell you,

No wind can blow that away.

No noise can cover that ever again.

You become still as a mountain.

Nothing can shake you.

Nothing.

But for that,

It's not enough to hear your own talk about it.

You need to allow yourself to dive into the essence of your self.

And that goes through silence.

There's no other way around it.

That's why meditation is so essential in the life of a spiritual seeker,

No?

Because this is the invitation again and again,

Daily.

We sit and we stop doing anything.

We just be.

Again and again and again.

What do you say?

Time for one last question.

Who's the lucky guy?

Or girl?

You know,

And then you sit for meditation,

Five minutes,

Ten minutes.

And then there is a thought coming into your brain,

You know?

Now what?

Okay,

I've done that.

Now what?

Is this going to last for much longer?

Seriously?

Got so many important things to do or whatever.

So many videos to watch on TikTok.

You know this.

Built-in restlessness of the realm of thoughts becomes so obvious.

The nature of thought is to keep looking,

Keep searching for something else.

Escape the present moment into the past or the future.

That's the nature of the realm of thoughts.

It's not you.

Don't take it personally.

Everybody that is thinking is experiencing exactly the same thing.

No?

Anything else?

I think we've said enough.

Don't you agree?

Let's do something.

You meet that thought again and again and again.

You meet it without identifying with it.

You meet it without believing it to be true.

You meet it to recognize it has no power.

It's just a thought.

It's just an idea or trying to grab your attention and escape.

You stop escaping.

Just be.

That's your practice for the coming week.

Sit every day.

10 minutes,

20 minutes.

And just be.

Don't get too hung up on any specific thoughts,

Any emotion,

Any sensation your body creates.

No.

You just observe.

And see how they rise and subside.

Rise and subside.

And then see if you can recognize behind that white noise that is always there.

See if you can recognize silence.

Like when you look at the skies,

You recognize the blue behind the clouds.

You know?

Once you recognize the silence,

Love that silence.

Just as much as you are attracted to the noise.

Train your system.

Love that silence.

What do you say?

So,

First of all,

There was a question back there in the beginning.

What was it about?

You remember?

You forgot.

I forgot.

What do you mean?

Oh,

About cravings and aversions.

Ah,

Cravings and aversions.

So,

This is something we can discuss on Saturday.

And also,

Loren is asking how can I connect to my loved ones that's not here anymore.

This is also something we can discuss on Saturday.

I think the thing that speaks to boredom,

The truth of what you're saying,

Is that there is absolutely no reason in our modern lifetime that anybody should ever be bored,

Ever.

There is so much to do,

And so much content to access,

On every phone that's in almost everybody's hand in the entire world.

And yet,

Somehow we're still bored.

Somehow this is still a topic that's coming up.

You know,

Boredom,

You feel misfortunate when you're bored.

I tell you,

You are extremely fortunate.

If you are bored,

That's a fantastic opportunity.

Dive deeper into the boredom,

Into the silence,

Beyond distractions.

Dive deeper to this question,

Who am I?

Beyond the noise.

Be bored.

It's an excellent opportunity.

Be bored 10 minutes a day at least.

20 minutes a day,

Just be.

What do you say?

Yes?

And we can discuss those questions,

No?

Cravings and aversions.

How to relax.

All this we can discuss Saturday.

We meet Saturday at 12 o'clock Mountain Time.

Do join us,

Bring a friend.

Let's make it a party.

Rejoice.

Excellent.

Your boredom.

Good night,

Good day,

Wherever you are.

Love you very much.

Bye-bye.