Rupert Spira: What Boredom Is Trying to Tell You

So, this is a question about, it seems so far in the themes of the meditations, you're talking about uh I'm remembering the phrase it would be disrespectful to give us a practice. Yes, because in order to do so, I would have to first consider you to be a separate self. And that would be disrespectful. It would be blasphemy, actually. Yes. So, I found this is quoting you back to you, but I you gave us a list once of uh the only four reasons to do anything. The first was pay the bills. The second was discover, learn, explore. The third was celebrate. Take a friend to lunch. And the fourth was creativity, perception leading to the beautiful, seeking the beautiful. Um I'm finding that that the question for me becomes I find throughout my life I've always been looking for something to do to pass the time. And I get that's not one of those four. But I'm just wondering about and this the other part of this question is about boredom. Yes, that that's what I was going to say, Kim, if by passing the time you mean avoiding boredom, then then that wouldn't be a good reason for doing whatever you were doing because whatever you did to avoid the boredom would temporarily relieve the boredom, but as soon as you stop doing that activity, the boredom would come back. And next time you try to avoid it, you'd need a little bit more of whatever it is you previously did. So, in that case, it would be better just to pause and and face the feeling of boredom because the feeling of boredom is is this existential uh um dissatisfaction that we've been speaking about these last few days. And and the only solution for that, the only resolution for that is the recognition of your true nature. Everything else just puts it off. If if you engage in some activity, you're just pushing the boredom down the line. So, so that wouldn't be a a good reason for doing something, but the I I I liked those. I don't remember saying those four reasons, but I think I would In this room, I believe. Yes, that that that But but say more, Kim. Do you find yourself struggling with boredom? Well, I'm I've all my life I've struggled with boredom. Okay. And uh I you've talked about, you know, stay with the boredom. Um I I don't know that I've had success with that. Okay. Boredom is in the same relationship to the peace of your true nature as a blank screen saver is to the screen. A boredom is a is a a thin veneer over the peace of your true nature. It's it's a blank state like the blank screen saver, which seems to hide the screen. Of course, it doesn't really hide the screen but the the the boredom is a blank state, a a mind made blank state, which is a thin veneer of over the over the peace of your true nature. You You Now, you see the mind the object knowing mind is always involved with objects. By objects, I don't just mean physical objects, I mean physical and mental or emotional objects thoughts feelings activities, relationships, and so on. So, the object knowing mind is always involved with objective experience. Now, if there's an absence of objective experience, you're sitting at home in the afternoon and there's nothing to do, that there's not then your mind will project a blank state onto that absence of objectivity. The mind will say, "There's nothing to do it." And and that's a blank state. But that's a uh that's the mind projecting a blank state onto the peace of your true nature because actually if there's nothing to do, why is there not just being? What's wrong with just being? There's no discomfort there. There's no disease there. There's no s- There's no longing there. But the mind the object knowing mind has to be busy with an object. And therefore, this absence of objective experience, which is really the peace of our true nature, but the but when it's when the mind views the peace of our true nature, when the object knowing mind views the peace of our true nature, it sees it as an absence, boredom, rather than seeing it as a presence. Let me I don't know how well I explain that. Let me give you a an example. You might I may have done this said this to you before. Um So a a woman goes on vacation for 3 weeks and she comes back. She gets to the airport and she calls um the local taxi driver to come and pick her up and and take her home. She's got two heavy suitcases, so the cab driver offers to take her suitcases into her home with her. So, she goes into her home, cab driver comes behind with her two heavy cases. She walks into her living room. She looks at the wall. She says, "Oh my goodness, it's gone." >> [clears throat] >> The cab driver looks at the looks at the wall and wonders what she's talking about. What what what do you mean it's it's gone? She She She says, "The the painting, my my favorite painting, it's gone." You see, the cab driver doesn't see the absence of a painting. He sees the presence of the wall. For him, nothing is missing because he doesn't see the wall through the filter of his previous memory, the presence of the painting. So, the woman sees the absence of the painting and suffers because of it. The cab driver just sees the wall and he thinks it's it's nice. It's a nice color. It So, the mind's like that. When the when the mind looks at the absence of experience because it's accustomed to knowing objective experience, it sees a blank empty state. And it feels that something is missing. It calls it boredom. But what it is really looking at, the absence of experience, is is pure being, the wall. There's nothing wrong with it. There's nothing missing on the wall. The cab driver doesn't see that something is missing. He just sees the wall as it is. So, that's what I mean when I say boredom is a a thin veneer over the peace of our true nature. It's not even a thin veneer. You know, the the screen saver is not a veneer over your screen. It's only the boredom is only the peace of our true nature, but filtered through the object knowing mind, which sees the absence of objective experience as something that is lacking or missing. Whereas in truth, nothing is missing. It's just the presence of being. It's peace. So, peace is actually the only substance present in boredom, just like the screen is the only substance present in your blank screen saver. The only reason you think it's a blank screen saver is because you were previously watching a you a movie on Netflix. Compared to the movie on Netflix, the the screen saver seems to be blank. It's not blank. It's the screen. There's no absent It It's It's not inherently the absence of anything. It's the presence of the screen. Am I explaining that well? Yes. So, Kim, that's what I mean when I say sit with the boredom. I don't mean indulge in the boredom, feel the boredom. It's That's not what I mean. I mean keep looking at the screen saver until you see only the screen. Keep looking at the walls till you no longer see the absence of a painting. You see what's actually there, the wall. Keep looking at the boredom until you feel what's really there, the peace of your true nature. Thanks.