23. Don'T Take Your Life For Granted

Boredom is a modern disease which arises when we don't know what to do with our time, money, success, friends, or life.

Boredom is actually a mental state. Our mind perceives the present moment, events and situations and labels them as old or boring or commonplace or interesting and so on. The mind begs for something new all the time, rather than being in the present and accepting what is.

Busy-ness can mask boredom, but it does not bring lasting happiness. It may seem that people are not busy in Bharat, because they are not involved in stressful business, like in America. They may not have business, but they are busy in their own way. Busy without business. Of course, sitting in a tea stall and speaking about the same old politics is also a kind of business. It may not earn them dollars, but it keeps them busy. Being busy is just our mental habit. We can avoid being present and taking responsisiblity for our lives.

We develop other ways to stop becoming aware of what we are doing. Multi-tasking, for example, the habit of doing two or more things at the same time, is a sure way to stop focusing on the task at hand. Be clear: we can never be efficient if we try to do two things together.

At the same time, we ignore many things happening around us by taking them for granted. Take the example of a single action like driving. If, in our mind, we have taken driving for granted, then we will feel bored as soon as we sit in our car.

How do we break out of this cycle?

Live in the moment. Live the road; live it as it unfolds when we drive. No moment is old. Every moment is a fresh, new gift. Nothing can become old or boring if we live in the moment. See everything as if you are seeing it for the first time. See every sunrise, every sunset, as if you are seeing it for the first time. And the truth is, it is fresh everytime. Nothing can be old. Existence is evolving every minute, then how can anything be old?

It is our mind that makes things seem old. Because the mind does not stay in the moment, things seem to be old and we feel bored. We see things for the first time with a little freshness. After that, we don't really see the thing at all; we see it through our already formed idea of it. We don't see the sunrise with a fresh mind. We see it against the unconscious backdrop of all the earlier sunrises that we have seen or heard about.

Be clear: boredom is death. It is the death of our freshness, of our aliveness. Only a person who lives here, only a person who lives in the 'now', is alive. Everybody else is more or less either a ghost or sleep walking.

Let it be clear: to be alive, the mind has to be fresh, sharp, and welcoming. A person cannot be alive when he lives in the past or future. He who lives in the 'now', is the only one who lives. Let us allow ourselves to enter into the space and time of now and here.