Boredom (2009) - From the Dharma Talk Blog Archives

(Originally Posted Friday, November 6, 2009)

For the past six weeks, I have been facilitating two groups in a process called Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, or MBCT, which is the adaptation of vipassana meditation to help prevent or minimize depressive relapse. In the first weeks of introducing the MBCT process to these groups, there inevitably arise comments that indicate a certain level of boredom with the various practices, such as the body scan or the sitting meditations.


I am alsays a bit perplexed by these reports of boredom. I cannot think of having experienced it very much as an adult, although I'm sure I must have had periods of boredom as a child. For people with a history of depression, however, boredom can be an ugly demon that can suck them into a deep, downward spiral. When the British actor, George Sanders, committed suicide in 1972, the note he left read, in part, "Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored." This from a man who allegedly had seven psychiatrists on his payroll at the same time!

I believe that boredom is the territory we inhabit when the way things are do not match up with the way we want them to be. We would rather be somewhere else, or doing some other thing, or we would rather be with some other person. When we dwell in that discrepancy, between the way things are and the way we want it to be, thoughts of boredom can be one of the experiences that arise. The simple solution is to open the tight fist around wanting things to be different, and giving space for what actually is in that moment.

Boredom can be a hindrance to a meditation practice, as well, whether or not we are susceptible to depression. And, as noted above, it can also be an entryway into deeper aspects of the dharma. When one of my teachers was asked what to do about boredom during meditation, he replied, "Be the first yogi to die of boredom. Get to know it intimately." When we look at boredom from this perspective, it can actually become quite interesting. We might even develop a kind of paradoxical perversity of actually looking forward to experiencing boredom in our meditation, so that we can investigate it more fully and get to know it minutely.

Great things can come out of boredom, if we open to it, get to know it, and just be with it for a while. Billy Collins, the former Poet Laureate of the United States (2001 - 2003) has said, “What I need [in order] to write is boredom. I need stretches of inactivity, of doing nothing in order for the poem to get generated. I think boredom is like the mother of creativity.”

So try getting friendly with your boredom whenever, and wherever, it arises. As my teacher, Phillip Moffitt, likes to say, "Invite it in and serve it tea." Treating it with curiosity is a great way to transform boredom into creative energy.

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