Boredom. It creeps into our consciousness when we least expect it. We all experience it from time to time. The mind, which usually moves faster than time, comes to an instant halt as it shifts into this thing we know as boredom. We may experience feelings of uselessness and hopelessness as we count down the hours until bedtime so that we can file the unavailing day away and wake up tomorrow with a new to do list. Many of us thrive on this experience of effectiveness, and boredom can leave us feeling depressed, lethargic, and inadequate.
Let’s examine this from an Ayurvedic perspective. Day to day, we move through our experiences blinded by our identity, seeing things through the lenses of our past. In fact, according to Ayurveda, we live specifically through a whole system of filters. These filters are made up of emotions, undigested experiences, and societal based reasoning. In sanskrit, we call these filters citta. Our recollection process becomes slow, dusty, and unreliable. We cannot even remember that we all have an expansive state of consciousness that lies within, it becomes buried in a closet of repetitive thinking processes. In the bottom of this closet lies the ahamkara. The best English word to describe the ahamkara is ego, or our self identity. The ahamkara, consuming only experiences through the filters of the mind (citta), becomes lonely and hungry for unique experiences. Ahamkara looks here and there for identity. It may look in the shops in the mall, in the night clubs, in religions….gathering all kinds of propaganda to create a pseudo-you. Still, the ahamkara inherently knows about the ocean of expansion that lies within, so it becomes bored of the mundane. If we allow these patterns to perpetuate, boredom becomes an all too familiar experience.
So how do we combat this boredom? There is the yogic process of samyag darshana, or total perception. Total perception involves seeing through the filters, tearing down the walls of you and I. Imagine the moment we say the words, “I love you,” we create duality. Duality is filth that clogs our filters. In order to experience samyag darshana, we must deconstruct the systems that promote comparison and individuality. When the observer melts with the observed, there are no boundaries, and one can experience this samyag darshana. We can skip the whole process of citta and jump right into pure choiceless awareness. Pure awareness is always new and fresh no matter what. I like to think of it as a lightbulb, or a flame illuminating every experience. When the light is on, the dullness of boredom can no longer exist. New and exciting life experiences can grow in this light.
For some of us, this choiceless awareness comes easier than for others. While our aim is to live in this state of newness, we can learn to experience it through yogic and Ayurvedic practices such as meditation, yoga, pranayama, and pratayahara. For more information on these teachings, please contact [email protected].
