Boredom as a Possible Point of Departure for Meditation: Silence, Attention and Access to Being in Pablo D’Ors

Javier S. Castresana

doi:10.4236/ojpp.2022.121002

Abstract

Boredom is a characteristic of today’s society. At the individual level and at the social level, the Western countries suffer from boredom. There are extrinsic and intrinsic causes that can lead to boredom. In general, the state of boredom is reached when there are no problems to solve, when the profession does not demand our actions, or when we feel disappointed in realizing that the achievements of life do not give us sustained satisfaction over time. Boredom, especially if it becomes chronic, can be considered a negative thing. But it can also have something positive. The silence, stillness and inaction that define boredom are also characteristics that define the initial state of the person before meditation. This study aims to reflect the possibility of getting out of boredom through meditation. We can abandon boredom if we start a path of personal growth through increasing attention and perception; coming out of ourselves, leaving our own reflections and thoughts, reaching personal emptying and a voluntary impoverishment of our exteriority, which opens the door to us to encounter with being.

Highlights

Boredom (IEP, 2021; Svendsen, 2005) is today a reality in the western world, the developed world
We can abandon boredom if we start a path of personal growth through increasing attention and perception; coming out of ourselves, leaving our own reflections and thoughts, reaching personal emptying and a voluntary impoverishment of our exteriority, which opens the door to us to encounter with being
How to define boredom? We could say that boredom is that inner emptiness that we feel when, being alone and in the midst of outer silence, we find ourselves incapable of action because no one needs or demands that we be active

Summary

Introduction

Boredom (IEP, 2021; Svendsen, 2005) is today a reality in the western world, the developed world It deserves a philosophical reflection, on its own definition, whether or not it is a problem to be solved, on its causes and on the possible solutions to the problem, if it really is a problem. They demand answers from us; they make us take action. We arrive at leisure after an exuberance of noise and action and if we have no claim from anyone or anything, we feel empty, silent, inactive out of obligation, in short, bored. An attempt is made to show that boredom, which is often chronic, does not always have to be judged as something negative, as something that needs to be left Rather, it can be considered a point of arrival with the possibility of departure and even ascent to something higher. Meditation is presented as a possible way of access to being through a personal emptying and a voluntary impoverishment of our exteriority

Boredom in Philosophy

Circumstance and Boredom

Defining Boredom

Meditation

Conclusion