Boredom - Zen O Zen - Part 2
Boredom !! A common word in our day to day life. All are bored. Stay at home moms are bored, working professionals are bored, students are bored and even kids under 5 are bored, utterly bored. Reason to be bored- same cleaning, same job, same books, same games , same programmes on tv and there is nothing new. Note the point - 'Nothing New'!! For something new to happen , someone has to create it. Only when we stop being 'creative', there is boredom. When we don't enjoy what we are doing 'We are bored'. We are caught in a pattern. Our pattern is fixed. This could be applied to any activity, person or things in our day to day life. As Osho puts it -
"You come to the house, you look at your wife in a particular pattern that has become fixed. You may not observe – you are not observing many things. The wife may be happy but you have become fixed with an idea: ”My wife and happy? – it is impossible!” She may be happy but you cannot see. You have a pattern, you see only that which you believe. And if the wife sees that you are seeing only unhappiness when she is happy suddenly she will become unhappy, because happiness cannot exist unsupported.
She may have been smiling and waiting for you. Then she looks at your face and reads your face and sees that you are seeing that she is unhappy. Suddenly the smile disappears and your pattern is proved right. And the wife is doing the same with the husband….Everybody has a fixed pattern, that’s why things become old, look repetitive. Drop this pattern. Boredom comes because of you, the world is not creating boredom. It is one of the most wonderful worlds possible. Everything is new and everything is changing, nothing fixed, no pattern is followed. It is an alive movement. But you have a dead mind, so you see only those things which you have fixed. Drop this mind and start looking afresh."
Only a creative person knows how to drop boredom; the creative person knows no boredom at all. Now to be creative doesn't imply that we have to be a dancer, painter or a singer but I do agree that these people know the essence of life. They create something new. When our actions are dependent on results or fruits of the action , doing becomes more and more a difficult thing to do. Stress and boredom are created.When we love our action , we often say ' I really don't know how time passed'. All of us have experienced this state. A beautiful example given by Prof. Mahadevan in a seminar on “Towards a New Paradigm of Business management – Alternative Perspectives from Ancient Indian Wisdom”, held at IIM Bangalore on December 12, 2009:
Every day we all practice this when we have deep sleep. We rise from the deep sleep and remark that we had a sound sleep. By that what it means is no matter what sound others made in the vicinity I continued to sleep. Try to sleep with an objective of having a 6 hour sound sleep and work for the result, you will not get sound sleep. Your mind will work very hard to find out how to ensure 6 hours of deep sleep and in the process you will get tired. Maybe after some time when the analytical and result-oriented mind gets fatigued, you will slip into deep sleep.
Enjoying life has only one secret formula : "Get lost". Yes, get lost in what we are doing. Let the doer become the doing. There is no boredom. There is joy and happiness unlimited. Cooking can be a joy, cleaning the house can be a joy, working under your stupid boss can be a joy, travelling two hours to work can be a joy, waiting in a queue can be a joy. It is all the same. What we are doing is not the point; the doer must be lost in doing, you should not remain separate.So when things get repetitive, keep in mind that we are stuck in a pattern refusing to see the change. Change is constant. Nothing is old. Become creative. When we are the creator of our thoughts and actions, there is no boredom. Do everything as if you are doing it for the first time. Miss the present and you live in boredom. BE in the present and you will be surprised that there is no boredom at all. Start by looking around a little more like a child. There is no past, no future what you have is NOW !!
"You come to the house, you look at your wife in a particular pattern that has become fixed. You may not observe – you are not observing many things. The wife may be happy but you have become fixed with an idea: ”My wife and happy? – it is impossible!” She may be happy but you cannot see. You have a pattern, you see only that which you believe. And if the wife sees that you are seeing only unhappiness when she is happy suddenly she will become unhappy, because happiness cannot exist unsupported.
She may have been smiling and waiting for you. Then she looks at your face and reads your face and sees that you are seeing that she is unhappy. Suddenly the smile disappears and your pattern is proved right. And the wife is doing the same with the husband….Everybody has a fixed pattern, that’s why things become old, look repetitive. Drop this pattern. Boredom comes because of you, the world is not creating boredom. It is one of the most wonderful worlds possible. Everything is new and everything is changing, nothing fixed, no pattern is followed. It is an alive movement. But you have a dead mind, so you see only those things which you have fixed. Drop this mind and start looking afresh."
Only a creative person knows how to drop boredom; the creative person knows no boredom at all. Now to be creative doesn't imply that we have to be a dancer, painter or a singer but I do agree that these people know the essence of life. They create something new. When our actions are dependent on results or fruits of the action , doing becomes more and more a difficult thing to do. Stress and boredom are created.When we love our action , we often say ' I really don't know how time passed'. All of us have experienced this state. A beautiful example given by Prof. Mahadevan in a seminar on “Towards a New Paradigm of Business management – Alternative Perspectives from Ancient Indian Wisdom”, held at IIM Bangalore on December 12, 2009:
Every day we all practice this when we have deep sleep. We rise from the deep sleep and remark that we had a sound sleep. By that what it means is no matter what sound others made in the vicinity I continued to sleep. Try to sleep with an objective of having a 6 hour sound sleep and work for the result, you will not get sound sleep. Your mind will work very hard to find out how to ensure 6 hours of deep sleep and in the process you will get tired. Maybe after some time when the analytical and result-oriented mind gets fatigued, you will slip into deep sleep.
Enjoying life has only one secret formula : "Get lost". Yes, get lost in what we are doing. Let the doer become the doing. There is no boredom. There is joy and happiness unlimited. Cooking can be a joy, cleaning the house can be a joy, working under your stupid boss can be a joy, travelling two hours to work can be a joy, waiting in a queue can be a joy. It is all the same. What we are doing is not the point; the doer must be lost in doing, you should not remain separate.So when things get repetitive, keep in mind that we are stuck in a pattern refusing to see the change. Change is constant. Nothing is old. Become creative. When we are the creator of our thoughts and actions, there is no boredom. Do everything as if you are doing it for the first time. Miss the present and you live in boredom. BE in the present and you will be surprised that there is no boredom at all. Start by looking around a little more like a child. There is no past, no future what you have is NOW !!
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Just for fun !