<div dir="ltr"><div>Hi Ben, I am responding, disagreeing, then agreeing with you:<br></div><div><br></div><div>“We are bored when we are simply not experiencing anything </div><div>beyond our expectations.”</div><div><br></div><div>I felt bored yesterday when my reality was below my expectations. To experience something beyond my expectations would be exciting, but my boredom is more dependent on my expectations than on the world meeting or exceeding them.</div><div><br></div><div>“I can see how meditation removes the values we attach to events,</div><div>thoughts, etc. but if we consider boredom as a state where reality and</div><div>exceptions agree, then it seems meditation would be an acceptance,</div><div>rather than 'antidote' to boredom.”</div><div><br></div><div>I would say meditation practice and philosophy would shift values more than remove them. An event could simply be appreciated differently, beyond positive or negative attributes. </div><div>When reality and expectations agree I would be content, not bored.</div><div>Meditation as an acceptance of boredom - yes! To me this also qualifies it as an antidote. Whereas a more direct ‘antidote’ would be to take up some exciting activity, meditation could present interesting stimuli in precisely the way you suggest here:</div><div><br></div><div>“I can imagine that meditative focus on self-control and detachment to</div><div>predictions could be an antidote to lack. This could be manifest by</div><div>shifting the level of abstraction in other other direction; moving</div><div>attention to smaller and smaller details that emphasize the uniqueness</div><div>of each moment and each individual.”</div><div><br></div><div>On fantasy-</div><div>I would place fantasy in direct opposition to meditation. In meditation I let go of thoughts, desires, and qualifications such as positive and negative. In fantasy I follow desire and creatively pursue further desire through imagination.</div><div><br></div><div>On the body-</div><div>I don’t wish to invoke dualistic thinking but I wonder about the body, for example during mind wandering, fantasy and meditation. During meditation one should be attuned to the positioning and sensations of the body. This kind of grounding seems to have an effect against day dreaming, by remaining in the present moment. Conversely, during task-oriented behaviour it’s harder to concentrate when there is sensory stimuli presenting distractions (pain or noise for example). Similarly, it’s difficult to enjoy pleasant sensory stimuli when the mind is preoccupied. I think boredom is often the instance of a simultaneous lack of mental and physical stimulation.</div><div><br></div><div>When bored I often feel the need to move my body around. The term antsy is derived from the expression having “ants in one’s pants” which supports this need to move around when impatient. Movement can create sensory stimuli. </div><div><br></div><div>Final thought: the German word for boredom is Langeweile which literally means long while. Here boredom relates to time specifically, which we've discussed a bit but I found this interesting.</div><div><br></div><div>Emilie</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, May 13, 2015 at 5:24 PM, B. Bogart <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ben@ekran.org" target="_blank">ben@ekran.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br>
Hello Emilie,<br>
<br>
I'd love to hear if you have any thoughts on control in meditation in<br>
relation to fantasy, as discussed in the other thread.<br>
<span class=""><br>
You write:<br>
> From here I wonder if anyone has thoughts on how the body plays a role<br>
> in boredom, attention and awareness? Do the senses offer an embodied<br>
> awareness that can shift one out of boredom or mind wandering?<br>
<br>
</span>This seems to imply dualism? Is the brain the body?<br>
<br>
I think of cognition as largely a process of learning to ignore<br>
stability in the world, and thus the senses. We habituate in order to be<br>
numb to the continuous stimulus the senses provide. At the same time<br>
there is such a thing as sensory adaption (e.g. the warm and cold bowls<br>
trick) where even at the lowest level of sensation, our cells learn not<br>
to produce signals when they are continuously stimulated. It's the<br>
reason we don't see the blood vessels in front of our retinas. It seems<br>
that even without cognition, our bodies attempt to erase stability.<br>
<br>
It seems plausible that habituation and sensory adaptation be the<br>
biological roots of boredom, and thus fully dependent on sensation at<br>
the outset.<br>
<br>
As far as I know we do adapt to pain, but it never disappears from our<br>
experience the way the retinal vessels do. Are there other exceptions to<br>
habituation and sensory adaptation?<br>
<br>
I also wonder about PTSD, where emotionally negative internal<br>
simulations cause significant distraction and discomfort. Sufferers<br>
don't seem to habituate to reliving traumatic events. Why not? It seems<br>
there is something different in internal experience compared to our<br>
sensory experience.<br>
<br>
Ben<br>
<div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">_______________________________________________<br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">Emilie St.Hilaire<div>Research and Accreditation Coordinator</div><div>Alberta School of Busines<span style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">s, 3-30Q Business Building</span></div><div style="font-size:12.8000001907349px">University of Alberta, T6G 2R6</div>(780) 492-3054<div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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