Tuesday, August 15, 2023
Some days I wake up, and I just don’t want to do anything. What are you like when you wake up? Maybe you want to get moving, check the phone, make the coffee, or go for a walk. What about starting your day with no wants and no don’t wants? Have you ever slowed down enough to move beyond what you might consider being bored? Have you ever fully merged with the moment, let your jitters subside, and lose yourself in time and space? I guess the Buddhists would call that being in a state of no desire, emptiness, or being detached. Most of us would call that boredom.
Being bored is “feeling weary because one is unoccupied or lacks interest in one’s current activity.” Being weary is “showing tiredness, especially as a result of excessive exertion.” So to be bored, you have to be exhausted from being unoccupied. Really??
Negative space is just as important as the object within it. They cannot be broken apart. The negative space, the absence of thinking in the mind is not boredom. It’s immersive in what makes a thought possible – the canvas upon which it appears. It’s the space in a vessel that makes it useful. Boredom is not being unoccupied, but being preoccupied – which means being engrossed in uselessness. Be engrossed in the usefulness of space. Must you be occupied at all times? Why not be empty? There’s nothing wrong with that. Boredom is an activity of the mind – compulsive thinking about inactivity. Remove the thinking, and boredom is gone. Why not get past boredom and appreciate the emptiness of clean, negative space. Appreciate those times when there is no thought, no activity, no jitters. It’s lovely. Pay attention to the background. It’s just as important as what’s in it. You don’t always have to occupy what’s empty. Enjoy the space.