Why are feelings of boredom, disenchantment, and failure useful for spiritual practitioners? A podcast from Satsang with Shambhavi.
first words from the podcast
Its useful to think of our fixations, or attachments, or compulsions as little patterns that actually make up sort of partial entities. We know that when we get some sort of bacterial infection, like candida or something like that. We know that bacteria in our gut can cause us to want to eat sweets. And when that happens we think, “Oh, I’m having sugar cravings.” We don’t distinguish between, oh, that’s the bacteria that wants something. It actually affects our mind and causes us to not perceive the difference between it and us. So there we are thinking, “Why am I craving sugar all of the sudden?” Then we find out we had some kind of infestation.
Well, it’s useful to think of our patterns of compulsive attachment similarly to this, because they do have their own personalities and their own desires. And like everything else, they are patterns of consciousness and energy that are looking for something. And, the interesting thing about it is that all of those patterns that we say – oh that’s part of my karma, or that’s part of my fixation, or that’s part of my attachment, or that’s part of my ego, or that’s an aspect of small self, or that’s my unenlightened self, or that’s my ignorant self. The interesting thing is that those little patterns, those partial people that are inhabiting us, want the same things that we want when we’re yearning for enlightenment or self-realization. There’s no absolute difference between what a bacteria wants when it’s craving sugar inside of our guts, what you want when you compulsively do anything: eat sweets, seek admiration, seek some sort of success compulsively over and over again, seek certain relationships compulsively over and over again, and when we sit down on our meditation cushions, or when we’re just walking around and we feel a longing to know our real nature and have that longing drive us to do practice and to realize. So, all of those things, including the bacteria, exist on a continuum. The big difference is that those limited patterns seeking their limited objectives are mistaking the object of longing, and ultimately those repetitive patterns become boring. Boring. Boring.
