Befriending Boredom:

Society’s aversion to boredom

The prevailing cultural narrative suggests that boredom is an enemy to be defeated. Or at least, an intolerable experience to be avoided at all times. Yet, avoiding boredom perpetuates it. In the same way a child hides under the covers from imagined monsters. We, no longer children, hide from an imaginary monster called ‘boredom’. Not under duvets, but behind the distraction of screens. Distraction then, only postpones the inevitable confrontation with boredom. Eventually, constant distraction becomes a form of boredom itself. Chasing new experiences and persistent pleasure seeking become as empty as the nothingness we wish to escape. In our endeavour to say ‘yes’ to every distraction, we say ‘no’ to reality. Certain suffering ensues.

Is being bored better or worse than resisting it? Perhaps what we really fear is not boredom, but rather nothingness. Søren Kierkegaard¹ captures this existential dimension of boredom, describing it as a “despairing refusal to be oneself.” Which suggests an aversion to being-with-our-own-being.

Emil Cioran² elaborates on this existential angst: “the essence of boredom consists in the awareness of a void, in the anguished feeling of being suspended in a void-time.” In this void-time, we find ourselves “alone with the void, delivered to a pure, undifferentiated time, a time without content or focus, a time that is itself a void.” Cioran’s words depict an existential dread looming beneath our aversion to boredom.

In the current zeitgeist of the secular West, such narratives have become the diseased beating heart of modernity itself. A pervasive condition of meaninglessness that defines our age. Our mechanical attempt to keep meaning alive is busyness. A pacemaker for the diseased heart of modernity.

Busyness as usual

Busyness has become a cultural imperative. The fool’s gold of a modernity in crisis. The prize for striking this gold is society’s approval. The real price we pay is an ever-increasing poverty of attention. As Jiddu Krishnamurti³ said,

”It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”

Here, the ‘well adjusted’ are both a victim of a system that rewards busyness. And also a perpetrator—reinforcing the values that undermine genuine freedom. Both trapped and complicit in our rationalised, secularised, and progress-obsessed world. We are time and energy poor. All the while, paradoxically affirming, ”I am free.”

The illusion of freedom

Freedom is the promise of individualism. A neoliberal religion, that worships at the altar of choice. The priests of the £43.5 billion self-help industry preach: more-choice-equals-more-freedom. We pray before a corporate god: pleading ”Almighty God of Choice, grant us the freedom to be, do, and have anything I want, for surely the universe exists for our demands alone. We are the chosen consumers, and all of creation bends to our individual wants.”

We are inundated with content that both explicitly and implicitly reinforces this belief. We might believe ourselves to be omnipotent architects of manifestation. Yet, the truth remains. This excess of choice, available at our fingertips. What we call freedom. Does not liberate us. It paralyses us.

In this state of unconscious paralysis, we mistake our conditioned reactions for free will. Oblivious, we spin on the hamster wheel of a culture that equates worth with endless doing.

The true nature of freedom, then, is not found in endless choices. As Jiddu Krishnamurti articulated: “Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice. Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and activity.” His insight suggests that freedom lies in navigating each moment with clarity and integrity, unencumbered by the noise of choice. I would add; The one who is free has cultivated the wisdom and courage to meet each situation with an open heart and clear seeing. Herein lies the modern problem. Our abundance of information casts a long shadow, in which wisdom wanes.

The Knowledge-Wisdom Paradox

Could it be that our unconscious paralysis stems as much from our inundation with facts as from our obsession with choice? We drown in data, yet thirst for meaning. In this deluge, we mistake the accumulation of information for the cultivation of wisdom. But wisdom is near extinction. It withers in the spaces between facts. Wisdom is not the ability to recite, but to perceive. To perceive the deeper patterns, principles, and truth that underlie the facts

This is not pessimism, but a recognised phenomenon, namely the “knowledge-wisdom gap. As Byung Chul Han⁴ observes, “The hyperkinetic circulation of information does not necessarily lead to the formation of truth”. The solution, paradoxically, may lie in what we most fear. The void of boredom.

Surrendering to the abyss of boredom means befriending society’s feared enemy, lying in wait beneath the surface of constant stimulation. This friendship kindles a spacious stillness, opening up unstructured spaces for contemplation. Boredom, then, becomes the fertile void. The womb of creativity from which contemplation is born. In embracing boredom, we rediscover contemplation. The bridge spanning the chasm between knowledge and wisdom.

A‑Void-ing

The void terrifies us. We recoil from its emptiness. Much of modern Western thought has developed a perspective parallel to Emil Cioran’s insight that I noted earlier, where the void is experienced as an ‘anguished feeling.’ A source of existential dread. Yet in many Eastern traditions, the void was understood to be paradoxically full.

From the seminal Buddhist text, the Heart Sutra: “rūpaṃ śūnyatā śunyataiva rūpam” (form is emptiness, emptiness is form)⁵. This line expresses the concept of śūnyatā (emptiness), central to Prajñāpāramitā teachings. It suggests a void that is not inert, but births all phenomena.

Madhyamaka, one of the two principal schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism⁶, posits śūnyatā (emptiness) as a central tenet. This concept asserts that all phenomena lack svabhāva (inherent existence) and arise through pratītyasamutpāda (dependent origination).

The Taoist concept of wu (non-being) is considered the source of all existence. The Tao Te Ching states, “All things are born of being. Being is born of non-being.“⁷

From the school of philosophy in Kashmir Shaivism, Rajanaka Kṣemarāja speaks of fullness and emptiness in the early 11th century Pratyabhijñāhṛdayam, expounding “[it is] simultaneously, absolutely full, absolutely empty, both, and neither vibrating in absolute simultaneity.“⁸

Even in the West, where modernity has “disenchanted” the world, leaving us with a “flattened reality devoid of deeper meaning”, according to philosopher Charles Taylor. Even here, there are hints of the void’s paradox.

In quantum field theory, the vacuum state is empty space but a with a dynamic entity filled with fluctuating energy fields. Where particles flicker in and out of existence⁹. In the words of Physicist Paul Davies “The vacuum is not inert and featureless, but alive with throbbing energy and vitality.“

Creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing) has been discussed in various philosophical and theological contexts for centuries too. Most prominently associated with Judeo-Christian thought.

The paradox of a pregnant void then, while deeply rooted in Eastern thought, also intrigues the Western mind. Bernardo Kastrup, known for his scientific, analytical approach bravely articulates this. Aware that his rhetoric here mirrors that of a mystic rather than a scientist, he prefaces the following by wryly noting, “I’m going to lose most of you here”:

“The past and the future are in it [in nothing], therefore everything is in it, everything is in nothing, there is nothing there, nothing has ever happened, nothing will ever happen, nothing exists, nothing is going on and out of that nothing everything exists, the entire richness of the drama of life, your regrets your disappointments your successes your loves and your heartbreaks, everything of every living creature in this universe exists in this nothing.”

Paradox shatters our comfortable certainties. How can everything come from nothing? In the modern world I have discussed thus far, it is hardly productive to slowly ponder how the richness and drama of life emerge from an infinitesimal void. Perhaps then, only in boredom’s stillness, in time, with grace, can the type of experience unfold that reveals a void pregnant with eternity. Imbued with the palpable presence of the infinite. Facts may, or may not support this. Yet, it is through direct experience that these paradoxes dissipate. Where a reality that transcends intellectual comprehension is revealed.

No self help

Intimacy with the void reveals another paradox: the paradox of being. When aversion to the void turns to acceptance, edges dissolve into boundless unity. We see through our conventional understanding of self and other. In turn, we face a metaphorical death, where the individual is revealed as a mere abstraction, a fiction created by the modern world.

The idea of an autonomous individual is informed by modernity’s promise of freedom and self-determination. Yet, as we pursue this promise, we find ourselves isolated. Lost in a sea of meaninglessness. This leads us back to the familiarity of distractions. Far from the realisation that the self is not what we imagine it to be—rather, it is precisely what we imagine it to be, and nothing more. The self, as we conceive it, is a product of our imagination, a mental construct that we mistake for an independent, limited being. Instead of approximately 8 billion separate selves, there is a single, universal consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. The individual self is nothing but an idea. This view points to a fundamental unity. A unity that individualism fractures.

If this is the case, could modernity’s crisis be a crisis of perception? A forgetting of our true nature? Where, curiously, the obsessive fascination with optimising ourselves coexists with the anxiety of meaninglessness. Both symptoms of imagining ourselves separate, insignificant, and disconnected from the whole of reality

Perhaps the crisis of modernity would be experienced differently if we were willing to confront the boredom and emptiness that we seek to avoid. I suggest the insights that gave rise to the experiences, such as; a void full yet empty, and of universal consciousness, emerge only when we dare to embrace the emptiness we continually attempt to escape.

I conclude by contemplating: Is there really a crisis, or are we simply experiencing a severe case of misidentification with a self that doesn’t exist? In befriending boredom we might discover not the answer to this question, but the dissolution of the question itself.

Notes

While this essay explores the concept of a pregnant void, I feel it pertinent to clarify that I don’t view the void as the ultimate source of existence. Rather, in my understanding, consciousness permeates the void, much like it permeates all layers of reality. In some Buddhist traditions, particularly certain Mahayana schools, the realisation of emptiness (śūnyatā) is indeed considered the ultimate goal. However, in some nondual tantric traditions, and aligning with my view of reality, consciousness is seen as the fundamental substrate that permeates all aspects of existence, including the void.

Not all boredom leads to contemplation or the realisations I have described. I am suggesting the moments of stillness that arise from certain types of boredom can open doors to profound experiences.

Research distinguishes several types of boredom, for example; Indifferent: a relaxed, withdrawn state with low motivation, Calibrating: uncertainty about what to do with openness to new experiences, Searching: restlessness with active seeking of engagement, Reactant: highly unpleasant with a strong desire for change, Apathetic: low arousal and lack of motivation resembling depression.

This essay explores existential boredom, which aligns most closely with apathetic boredom but carries deeper philosophical implications. Philosophers like Heidegger and psychologists such as Yalom describe existential boredom as a profound sense of emptiness and meaninglessness, often triggering deep questions about existence. While boredom might lead to contemplation, I’d like to acknowledge I am not referring to clinical depression that can also relate to boredom. Persistent feelings of hopelessness may indicate serious mental health concerns requiring professional help. Boredom remains under-researched, but recent studies, like Eastwood et al. (2012), explore its complexities and potential mental health implications. This essay doesn’t aim to trivialise mental health issues. If you’re experiencing persistent feelings of hopelessness, seek professional support.

Bibliography:

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1. Søren Kierkegaard – Danish philosopher from 19th-century. Often referred to as the Father of Existentialism. (5 May 1813 – 11 November 1855 ↩︎
2. Emil Mihai Cioran – Romanian philosopher, aphorist and essayist, known for his pessimism, and aphoristic writing style. (8 April 1911 – 20 June 1995) ↩︎
3. Jiddu Krishnamurti – Indian philosopher, spiritual teacher, speaker and writer (11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) ↩︎
4. Byung-Chul Han – South Korean-born philosopher and cultural theorist living in Germany. (born 1959) ↩︎
5. Translation: Red Pine (Bill Porter) ↩︎
6. Madhyamaka was one of the two principal schools of Mahāyāna Buddhism in India, the other school being the Yogācāra. ↩︎
7. Translation: Stephen Mitchell ↩︎
8. Translation: Christopher Wallis ↩︎
9. The vacuum state, while appearing empty in classical terms, is actually a dynamic entity filled with fluctuating quantum fields. These fluctuations can manifest as virtual particles that appear and disappear within the limits set by the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. ↩︎