Osho on Boredom
Boredom and restlessness are deeply related. Whenever you feel boredom, then you feel restlessness. Restlessness is a by-product of boredom. Try to understand the mechanism. Whenever you feel bored you want to move away from that situation. If somebody is saying something and you are getting bored, you start becoming fidgety. This is a subtle indication that you want to move from this place, from this man, from this nonsense-talk. Your body starts moving. Of course, because of politeness you suppress it, but the body is already on the move — because the body is more authentic than the mind, the body is more honest and sincere than the mind. The mind is trying to be polite, smiling. You say, ‘How beautiful,’ but inside you are saying, ‘How horrible! I have listened to this story so many times and he is telling it again!’…
If you listen to the body and run away, the restlessness will disappear. Try it. Try it. If somebody is boring you simply start jumping and running around. See. Restlessness will disappear because restlessness simply shows that the energy does not want to be here. The energy is already on the move; the energy has already left this place. Now you follow energy.
So the real thing is to understand boredom not restlessness. Boredom is a very, very significant phenomenon. Only man feels bored, no other animal. You cannot make a buffalo bored. Impossible. Only man gets bored because only man is conscious. Consciousness is the cause. The more sensitive you are, the more alert you are, the more conscious you are, the more you will feel bored. In more situations you will feel bored. A mediocre mind does not feel so bored.He goes on; he accepts; whatsoever is, is okay; he is not so alert. The more alert you become, the more fresh, the more you will feel as if some situation is just a repetition, as if some situation is just getting hard on you, as if some situation is just stale.
The more sensitive you are, the more bored you will become. Boredom is an indication of sensitivity and consciousness. Trees are not bored, animals are not bored, rocks are not bored — because they are not sensitive enough. This has to be one of the basic understandings about your boredom — that you are sensitive.
But Buddhas also are not bored. You cannot bore a Buddha. Animals are not bored and Buddhas are not bored, so boredom exists as a middle phenomenon between the animal and the Buddha. For boredom a little more sensitivity is needed than is given to the animal. And if you want to get beyond it then you have to become totally sensitive. Then again the boredom disappears. But in the middle the boredom is there. If you become animal-like, then boredom disappears. So you will find that people who live a very animalistic life are less bored. Eating, drinking, marrying — they are not very bored, but they are not sensitive. They live at the minimum. They live only with that much consciousness as is needed for a day-to-day routine life. You will find that intellectuals, people who think too much, are more bored, because they think. And because of their thinking they can see that something is just repetition.…
Maybe we don’t allow our consciousness to rise higher because then life would be a constant surprise and you might not be able to manage it. That’s why you have settled for a dull mind, there is some investment in it. You are not dull for no reason, you are dull for a certain purpose — if you were really alive then everything would be surprising and shocking. If you remain dull then nothing surprises you, nothing is shocking. The more dull you are, the more life seems to be dull to you. If you become more aware, life will also become more alive, livelier, and there is going to be difficulty…
Live more authentically. Drop the masks; they are a weight on your heart. Drop all falsities. Be exposed. Of course it is going to be troublesome but that trouble is worth it because only after that trouble will you grow and become mature. And then nothing is holding life. Each moment life reveals its newness. It is a constant miracle happening all around you only you are hiding behind dead habits. Become a Buddha if you don’t want to be bored. Live each moment as fully alert as possible, because only in full alertness will you be able to drop the mask. You have completely forgotten what your original face is. Even when you stand before the mirror in your bathroom and you are alone, nobody is there, even standing before the mirror you don’t see your original face in the mirror. There too you go on deceiving. Existence is available for those who are available to existence. And then I tell you, there is no boredom. Life is infinite delight.
Source:
Listen to complete discourse at mentioned below link.
Discourse Series: Ancient Music in the Pines Chapter #4
Chapter title: Be a light unto yourself 24 February 1976 am in Buddha Hall
References:
Osho has spoken on ‘Boredom, restlessness, sensitivity, consciousness, awareness, Buddha’ in many of His discourses. More on the subject can be referred to in the following books/discourses:
- The Grass Grows By Itself
- The Discipline of Transcendence
- The Razor’s Edge
- Take It Easy
- Ancient Music in the Pines
- Satyam Shivam Sundram
- Vigyan Bhairav Tantra, Vol 1
- The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha
