Have you ever been interested in boredom? When we are in a neutral feeling zone, like a doctor holding cell, what does the mind do? The mind feels like a prisoner in solitary confinement. Have you noticed how our smart phones are an escape from neutral feeling zones? Waiting is a famous place for boredom, and now you and escape boredom by pulling out your smart phone. But we miss the treasure to be found in the neutral zones. It is here that we can encounter our Being. If we can be Okay in a neutral zone, we can be Okay anyway. When something exciting is happening, something that interests the mind—and mind you the unpleasant interests the mind as well as the pleasant—we feel existence as a sense of self. But when we encounter a neutral “boring” space, our sense of self goes into a tail spin. There is no traction. Self need something to be grabbed by. The rubber of Me doesn’t hit the road in a neutral space. It’s like being afloat in outer space with no gravity.
So our practice is to notice boredom. If we become interested in boredom it is not boring. If we just sit with the feeling of boredom, not attracted, not avoiding, and not bored, but we just sit with it, awake and aware, boredom dissolved. Curiosity is the true gravity that anchors the mind in your true nature…which is not boring.
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