Meditation is ultimately a confrontation with boredom. We have to sit with our loneliness.
We are forced to choose: Will I embrace the boredom and let go of my self or will I cling to entertainment, some thing to keep me company? Will I take each emerging thought hostage and transform it into some story that medicates my loneliness? Or, will I allow even the subtlest of thoughts—the basic sense of separation between "I" and the boredom—to pass away in it's own time?
If we cling to the entertainment, we will be born, once again, into a cycle of depression, addiction, and disappointment: We will be overcome by the belief in our own insufficiency—the basic notion that we are broken or some how missing some essential ingredient. Then, we will become infatuated with a fix or some object that we believe is the miracle pill for all that ails us. Finally, we will become disillusioned with our fix, and find ourselves right back at square one—confronted by a pervasive feeling of loneliness.
On the other hand, if we let go of our self, a startling transformation takes place. The idea that we are some how apart from or other than the energy associated with boredom is released. The boredom becomes vibrant or life giving, and we are revealed to be the incarnation of this energy. This is ordinary magic. This is awakening.
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