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On Boredom, Goals and High Ideals
Boredom is the scourge of modernity, so overwhelming that some even began to read this article out of boredom.
Nope? Are you saying it's a matter of interest? I certainly hope so. And yet, I know how well we are all at convincing ourselves that we are right. Especially when it doesn’t require any effort or change.
I'm going to paint a portrait of a bored person, and you can decide for yourself how similar he is to you.
I'll be categorical. This topic does not tolerate half measures.
Portrait of boredThe life of a bored person is mainly characterized by two features - the desire for pleasure and the escape from suffering. This is expressed in the following manifestations:
- It makes you feel good!
Having experienced for the first time some pleasant and strong sensation or inner experience, a person tends to repeat it. But each subsequent repetition brings less and less pleasure. With that comes dissatisfaction. And then he's looking for a way to bring back, or even enhance, the pleasure. And he usually finds it. Then strong sensations increase, and sensitivity to sensations is dulled.
And this is manifested in almost all areas of life – food, sex, entertainment, and even intellectual aspirations and spiritual experiences. Everywhere there is the same magnetic desire for pleasure.
From time to time there is satiety. In this case, what recently brought pleasure is no longer happy. Then the person either begins to notice his boredom, or again runs away from himself in search of other strong sensations. And again. - Effortless high
Coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, drugs. All stimulants and mind-altering substances can be replaced by your own efforts. And to my advantage. But your own effort for the bored is long, boring, hard. - Alien life is more interesting than your own.
The bored person spends a lot of time on social media, swallowing tons of information about the lives of others, clicking on an endless array of entertaining and engaging videos. Watching TV shows, movies and even reading books are in the same plane. I will clarify – unless there is a purposeful activity with a predetermined result behind all this. - The efforts of others instead of
Football, basketball, hockey, boxing. In general, sports is something to do, not watch on screen, sitting in a bar with a glass of beer. I have already written about my own efforts. - Escape from loneliness
If the bored person is left alone, he quickly finds something to do. Mostly from the list above. If you do not do anything, you will have to deal with yourself. And if it is prolonged, he will be in danger of depression. And that means asking yourself, why am I bored with myself? Why am I bored of living anyway?
Do you have a big goal?
Got it? Right?
Are you sure it's big?
Check yourself with these questions:
- How long does it take me to implement it?
- How much time do I take every day to get there?
- Does it inspire me to make big, even heroic, changes?
- What if I reach it?
- You still think it's big?
High idealsWe live in a time where there are no high ideals and therefore little goals.
More recently, humanity has generally recognized the authority of spiritual traditions and religions, which have always been the guardians of deep knowledge and inspirers of high aspirations. It's been like this for thousands of years.
In our time, with increasing force, religions are discredited, and society is transformed into a purely secular, whose ideals are in the plane of ordinary human interests. Anything beyond that is heresy.
And every term that has at least some spiritual connotation is immediately branded in the consciousness of the layman. Something like this:
God? Well, we are modern people, yet we know that religion is the opium of the people. And the church is the organization that supplies this opium. And the purpose of all this is to zombify people and control the masses.
And this is what people who have never read any scriptures think. They simply repeat the statements of those whom they considered authoritative enough to trust them, or draw conclusions, looking at not always deep representatives of religious movements. For example, a Christian who has never read the Bible is a mass phenomenon.
We live in a time when few people turn to primary sources. Everyone is used to receiving information from second or even third hands (this is one of the reasons for the easy controllability of the masses).
Therefore, Muslims are aggressive fanatics, Buddhists are bald nihilists, Hindus are alien pagans. And all these opinions were formed from stereotypes that came from outside. No one studies the primary sources, but everyone has a ready-made opinion. It's made up of movies, TV shows, and social media posts starting with "The Buddha Said..." (and by the way, some of these quotes have nothing to do with it).
The difference between studying the source and getting second-hand information is like the difference between drinking water directly from a clean spring and drinking from another person’s hands. It's good if those hands are clean. I mean, what do I mean? But to what – before you understand what a high goal you need to feel a high taste.
Spiritual traditions are carriers of this taste and guardians of knowledge, indicating high and inspiring ideas. If you don’t get the taste, you’ll think of learning as a philosophy, and if you get it, you’ll think of it as an instruction to act, a way.
This taste is like a sparkling lightning, which for a time illuminated the surrounding reality. And you saw both the goal and the path to it.
Until you see the target, you have no chance of hitting it. But once you see it, you are able to reach it by shooting even beyond the horizon. As long as a person is tossed within the framework of a human, his path is to walk in a circle. This path consists of seeking pleasure and fleeing from suffering. And over time, these two motives become reflexes that leave no chance to understand the world beyond them.
Have you noticed this cycle of recurring stories? Do you not want to get out of it?
Source: alter-world.net/2013/09/14/o-skuke-celyax-i-vysokix-idealax/
