Nov. 1, 2006 On Boredom
I’m always interested in states of mind about which Buddhism either seems to ignore or has nothing much to say. Perhaps the best example of this is “fear,” a term that is absent from all the long lists of mental factors found in the Abhidhamma. This is odd, given that it is such a common element of human experience and is mentioned repeatedly by the Buddha in the suttas. But where is there an in-depth Buddhist analysis or theory of fear? I have yet to find one.
The same is true for “boredom,” another ubiquitous mental state that does not seem to be mentioned in the texts. It is sometimes said that boredom is a “modern” phenomena, presumably on the grounds that people tied to daily agricultural toil and constant material insecurity don’t have the time to get bored. I don’t buy that at all. What about all those Buddhist monks and nuns over the past two and a half thousand years, who neither worked nor were materially insecure, and who spent much of their time just watching their breath? Are we to believe that boredom was never an issue in such a context?
My sense is that “boredom” is “moha,” in Pali, usually translated as “delusion” or “stupidity.” It is one of the three root poisons of the mind, the other two of the triad being greed (lobha) and hatred (dosa).
In classical Buddhist theory, greed is the habitual response to pleasure, while hatred is the habitual response to pain. Both are forms of craving (tanha): greed being the craving to have what we want, hatred the craving to get rid of what we don’t want. Craving itself is rooted in ignorance (avijja), i.e. our primary confusion around who we are and what the world is. Mindful awareness (sati-sampajanna) is that which enables us to see these processes of reactivity at work so as not to be conditioned by them in our thoughts, words and deeds.
Accounts such as this tend to reduce our relation to the world to either one of wanting something or of not wanting something. Typically, moha, the third “poison,” is not mentioned. But just as greed is our reaction to pleasure and hatred our reaction to pain, moha is understood as our reaction to neither-pleasure-nor-pain. It is what we experience when nothing triggers our appetites or fears. To translate this as “delusion” or “stupidity” has never struck me as particularly helpful. For one thing, it immediately blurs the distinction between moha and ignorance (avijja).
But if we think of moha as boredom, it makes far more sense psychologically: for this is how we commonly react when nothing much is happening. We get bored, listless, sunk in a kind of mental fog. In terms of the five hindrances, it is what gives rise to lethargy and restlessness. The way we deal with this in meditation is to cultivate interest in what appears to be without interest. Rather than settling in to the mental fog (and more often than not confusing such dullness with equanimity), we probe the blandness of the experience with clarity and attention until it starts revealing itself as shifting, changing, unreliable, not self, contingent and very weird indeed.
-- Posted Nov. 1, 2006
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Thank you, Stephen Batchelor, for addressing this important issue for many of those who are sometimes sitting under the dome of boredom. Boredom attacks us heavily when we are thrown back to ourselves, for instance when being alone. Not paying attention will negatively shape our experiences. In the mood of boredom we are looking for compensation as one strategy instead of being mindful as the better strategy. Compensation has different forms: eating, watching TV, pondering useless ideas, self-pity etc. All these forms will poison us undercover. They stand for the potential of becoming greedy or angry. Thus, they can be considered as hidden patterns of our habitual compensation behaviour masked by the third poison 'delusion'. By ignoring boredom we fail to see what we should see in those moments: a proceeding cultivation of mindful awareness. Most of the times we find it easier and safer to sit in the fog than moving two mindful steps out of the fog. About the origin of low visibility we should obtain final and pacified clarity.
Posted by: JGrosse-Puppendahl | Nov. 1, 2006
Thank you for this insight. I am a barber and next time I am in-between haircuts and my mind drifts toward boredom, instead of reaching for chocolate covered almonds, I will simply observe my thoughts and be mindful of my actions. This blog has been helpful. Thanks.
Posted by: DFriday | Nov. 2, 2006
Right on, Stephen. When teaching I often refer to the Three Poisons, I point out these three ways of reacting: Clinging or grasping after the pleasant; pushing away or 'annihilating' the unpleasant; and tuning out, falling asleep, day-dreaming or becoming bored in the face of the 'neutral.'
And I thank my very first meditation teacher who told me that if I ever found myself bored, it is a sign that I am not paying attention. So the very presence of boredom becomes the 'bell of mindfulness' helping me to re-energize my inquiry.
Thanks for this posting!
Posted by: FBoccio | Nov. 3, 2006
Heh heh. Buddhism: a sophisticated art of living concerned with the eating or not eating of chocolate... A local newspaper featured a humorous article about how to aquire non-Western friends in order to go with them to a local World Music Festival: "To avoid religious debate, say that you're a Buddhist. Nobody knows what the Buddhists are up to, hardly the Buddhists themselves"...
Posted by: IThab | Nov. 6, 2006
One thing that troubles me in the spiritual teaching is when the “wrong” teacher turns a state of mind or the mind itself (himself) into a diabolic manifestation. That is what my first meditation teacher did. He told us to be deaf to our thoughts, to our mind. Happily, Stephen, you’re not doing this. Baudelaire, the french poet, did it: he said that boredom is the worse of all the vices. No less. On the other hand the modern pedagogy considers that some boredom is good for a kid, it could helps him to be creative; I verified it with my kids: with two construction toys they made a third one. So boredom seems to be a generic word. My boredom is when the life has no taste, the long french dinners for example. Dharma helps me to find the taste of what I live, especially since I learnt the vipassana meditation, since I still learn it everyday; learning clear the mental fog.
Posted by: lmiguel | Nov. 8, 2006
I appreciate your thoughts on boredom and comments made here have been helpful in my meditation.
I disagree, however, that boredom is “neither pleasant nor unpleasant.” The French term for boredom, ennui, clearly reflects its Latin roots: in + odio, in hatred. Boredom is unpleasant. That’s why it is easy to recognize.
Delusion, on the other hand, dupes us, tricks us, perverts perception. “Enraptured with greed, enraged by hate, blinded by delusion…man aims at his own ruin…” [Anguttara Nikaya 3.56]
The subject is suffering. Buddha described three kinds. Suffering due to pain which we hate. Suffering due to change which ends pleasure and makes us greedy for more. Suffering due to conditioned phenomena, a medium so pervasive as to be imperceptible. This is delusion. Unseen, delusion out-wits us constantly – our own pride, doubts, views.
The power of delusion requires a strong, distasteful translation like hoodwinked, bamboozled, double-crossed
Posted by: DFomby | Nov. 9, 2006
Stephen wrote: « My sense is that “boredom” is “moha,” in Pali…moha is understood as our reaction to neither-pleasure-nor-pain.”
DFomby wrote: “I disagree, however, that boredom is “neither pleasant nor unpleasant.”
A reaction to something is sometimes different than the thing itself.
In french “ennui” has three principal meanings: “tourment” (torment), “lassitude” (weariness) or “mélancolie” (melancholy). “Ennuyer” (to bother) is different than “s’ennuyer” (to be bored). Hatred can comes from boredom, it’s a current problem in the french suburbs.
I’m not trying to polemize, just to specify; words are often matter of misunderstanding. The intention is for us all to not suffer from boredom or anything else.
Posted by: lmiguel | Nov. 10, 2006
Comments on boredom in Spanish language. Aburrirse is to be bored. I do it to myself: "me aburro". I am bored: "Estoy aburrido". I wonder if aburrirse has any connection with the word donkey (burro). Is it "donkeylike" to be bored? John Saunders
Posted by: JSaunders | Mar. 12, 2007
