If you're feeling a little bored,
We have this panic,
Oh my God,
I'm bored.
I better go listen to a Dharma talk.
I better get my spiritual book.
You know,
Something,
Do something.
I can't be with the boredom.
Yeah,
Be with the boredom.
It's not gonna last,
Right?
We all say we want these moments where,
You know,
I don't wanna do anything.
I just,
I can't wait till the end of the day and I can relax and I can just sit and do nothing,
Right?
And then we get there and of course we're like,
Well,
I didn't really mean do nothing.
Let me go get a book.
Let me go get a podcast to listen to.
Let me go get a drink.
Let me go get some,
You know,
Let me get my phone,
Right?
We don't even know how to sit and be anymore.
And I do stress this to people a lot.
We've gotta be really careful about always looking for spiritual teachings,
You know,
Books and Dharma talks or podcasts,
As using those as almost a replacement for the practice.
Because while it is useful,
Like these talks are useful,
You know,
These gatherings.
I put Dharma talks out every week,
Right?
I hope that they're helpful.
You know,
There's so much spirituality that we can access at our fingertips on Insight Timer.
You know,
So much that's available to us.
And that's,
You know,
That's really nice,
Right?
Because we didn't have this.
When I started meditating in 1999,
We didn't have any of this,
Right?
And so it is really nice to have access to all of this.
But we can rely on it a little bit too much.
You know,
I'm not feeling,
I'm feeling a little bit uncomfortable.
You know,
I'm feeling a little bored.
I'm feeling a little panicked.
Let me go listen to a Dharma talk to get me through it.
And so while again,
There is a place for listening to Dharma talks and reading spiritual teachings,
We would be better served,
Especially once we have a certain amount of knowledge,
We would be better served to sit with that fear,
To sit with the boredom,
To sit with the discontentment,
Rather than using something outside of us to scratch that itch.
Because we end up what we're doing as we're just transferring our desires from material possessions to our desires for spirituality.
And this is why so many people,
One of the reasons people stay perpetual spiritual seekers because they're not really okay being in the discomfort.
It's just,
Well,
Let me reach for another talk.
Let me,
Oh,
This next book,
This next retreat,
This next workshop.
And again,
While all of these things are good and we do need a certain amount of knowledge,
We do need to balance it out to recognize like,
Like right now it seems as though,
It could be somewhere like 80% taking in knowledge,
Maybe 20% practice,
Maybe 70,
30,
And it should be flipped the other way around,
Should be the other way around.
It should be mostly practice.
And the knowledge is helpful,
We need it,
We need the pointers,
We need to understand things a little,
You know,
We need that intellectual understanding,
Right?
But then we need to sit with our experience to be with our experience,
To be with the boredom,
With the discomfort,
Because that is where that intellectual understanding goes down into a place of knowing.
When you really can sit with the boredom and go,
It's not gonna last.
I know this isn't gonna last,
I am gonna enjoy,
There is nothing going on right now,
And this is great,
Right?
That is truly understanding impermanence.
