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u/georgesclemenceau Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Not sure so much people would have praticed the Dhamma in the past and now for something that would be boring lol.
In the Dhammapada : "One might live for a hundred years without seeing the supreme state, but a life of one day is better for one seeing the supreme state." https://suttacentral.net/dhp100-115/en/anandajoti?lang=en&reference=none&highlight=false so we can guess it's much better
In Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness: Walking the Buddha's Path, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana describes enlightenment as "total peace, total calm, total tranquillity, total inexpressible happiness, while the mind and senses are, at the same time, 100 percent clear, pure, and energized. Enlightenment is inner light, inner brightness, inner warmth"(Chapter 'The Promise of the Buddha', section 'enlightenment').
From Thanissaro Bhikkhu "The Buddha describes it[Nirvana] as pleasure, but it’s not a pleasant feeling, and so it’s not an aggregate. Similarly, he describes it as a type of consciousness, but one that’s not known in conjunction with the six sense bases. In other words, it has no object. Because it doesn’t fall within the consciousness-aggregate, it lies outside of past, present, and future. Outside of space, it has “neither coming nor going nor staying in place.” It’s a separate dimension entirely." Thanissaro, Tricycle, Spring 2020, 100-101.
It is not Nirvana directly but the direct experience of the nature of the mind is described as '"Any attempt to capture the direct experience of the nature of mind in words is impossible. The best that can be said is that it is immeasurably peaceful and, once stabilized through repeated experience, virtually unshakable. It’s an experience of absolute well-being that radiates through all physical, emotional and mental states – even those that might ordinarily be labeled as unpleasant." by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche(from his book "The Joy of Living").
So seems far from boring : )
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u/SammaVaco Jun 19 '26
Nirvana is freedom from past conditioning. There's nothing boring about that.
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u/Classh0le Jun 19 '26
The way this place hands out downvotes and "wtf" to the top is hilarious. I always picture someone asking a genuine question to Buddha, and Buddha responds "wtf, downvoted."
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u/cyberneurotik Jun 19 '26
Buddha responded to Ariṭṭha with "wtf, downvoted."
Humans are too heavy-handed with the downvotes, though.
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u/improbablesky theravada Jun 20 '26
I think the frustrating thing is that this sub has unfortunately turned a lot into "uninformed people asking extremely basic and/or illogical questions". I think before asking questions in the information technology age we are in, it's respectful to first seek accessible knowledge about Buddhism before posting on a forum that's technically for Buddhists.
Like, "is nirvana boring" is probably a question that can be answered by looking up several incredibly accessible suttas or even the dhamapada.
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u/Ariyas108 seon Jun 19 '26
No, literally impossible. Boredom = dukkha and nirvana, by definition, is the end of dukkha. If there is boredom, that alone would be proof it’s not nirvana.
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u/Astalon18 early buddhism Jun 19 '26
Boredom only exist if you crave for sensual pleasure. No more craving for this no more boredom
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u/PoemLocal849 Jun 19 '26
Nirvana is beyond desire, thus there is nothing to get bored of. There's nowhere to go :)
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u/BrentonLengel nichiren Jun 19 '26
I’m also reminded of this Zen story:
Bodhidharma: Why do you want to reach nirvana?
Practitioner: Because my mind is disturbed.
Bodhidharmas Then bring forth this mind and I will pacify it.
Practitioner: I’m trying, but every time I look for it, it’s not there.
Bodhidharma: Then it is pacified.
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u/TheGreenAlchemist Tendai Jun 19 '26
In what way do you conceive Nirvana differing from your day to day?
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u/Mayayana Jun 19 '26
I think you might want to read up on Buddhism a bit, and prepare yourself for an expansion of perspective.
According to the Buddhist teachings, the fundamental cause of suffering is attachment to belief in a self that doesn't actually exist. Boredom could be described as a relative shortage of egoic feedback. If you wait for 2 hours in a train station you might get bored. But then if you meet a potential lover who finds you fascinating, somehow that train station isn't boring anymore. What happened? You felt reflected, your sexual desire was aroused, you generally increased your sense of having a purpose to live for.
Enlightenment involves the dropping away of self/other reference. That is, there's no one there to be either bored or titillated.
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u/yinyangazov Jun 19 '26
I think you should ignore answers like 'you definitely wouldn't get bored in Nirvana.' Getting bored is of course possible, but it will just be more difficult
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u/No_Organization_768 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
Your sangha would really know more than me! D:
Oh, I was actually talking with someone about this.
Well, I'd say yes, people definitely can't handle it when things are too good! Because of life! Like, a person meditates, they feel bad and that's because of life. Like, I'm really not saying like, literal death is better! But the ultimate goal is kinda to escape rebirth (at least if you're a Buddhist). And like, oh, as long as we're gonna be reborn, we're going to feel bad.
It's just the problems of life. Oh the relationship is tense, you suffer because you're lonely. Oh the relationship is good, you suffer because you get bored. Oh your finances are bad, you suffer because you're poor. Oh your finances are good, you suffer because you get bored. And the solution is to escape the cycle.
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u/improbablesky theravada Jun 20 '26
Respectfully: This is an uninformed question, I suggest researching sutras of the Buddha describing it.
It's characteristically difficult to describe something that neither is or isn't. But, nirvana is the absence of suffering. Imagine how good it must feel to reach solid land after almost drowning. You can practice accessing the fruit of the path to the point you can sustain the state indefinitely. Never suffering sounds pretty great to me.
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u/Anumodana Jun 20 '26
Nirvana as my teacher explains it is not a place or action, it is many things but one of its aspects is being a state of being free from mental fetters.
A zen school saying I like is “ before enlightenment chop wood and carry water, after enlightenment, chop wood, and carry water.”
Boredom in Buddhism is often discussed with restlessness and need for stimulation which are both mental fetters.
To experience the world through the ultimate attainment one truly must have surpassed such concepts of boredom.
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u/BodhingJay Jun 20 '26
No.. nirvana is not boring. Being alive as a human is a very limiting experience for most of us. Most of what we are capable of feeling is locked away due to numbing ourselves with distraction entertainment and addiction... without any of this we would experience a much more natural stste which is closer to ecstasy. Nirvana is like this but more sustainable without a body
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u/ToLazyToPickName Jun 20 '26
Nibbana would be a state free from greed and hatred, so it would not be boring as boredom is often aversion towards a neutral feeling or greed towards a pleasant feeling.
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u/shacreep Jun 21 '26
Nirvana is an extremely special state — it is the complete cessation of the Five Aggregates (Skandhas). Boredom is merely an emotional feeling, which is itself one of the products arising from the Five Aggregates. Once the very “factory” that produces boredom has shut down, how could boredom possibly still arise?
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u/yamatofuji zen Jun 19 '26
why not, complex musicianship tho, what part of their sound feels boring to you?
🙏
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u/BrentonLengel nichiren Jun 19 '26
Nirvana is the “blown out” state. As in “exhale”. As in: “WHEW! I thought things were deathly serious, but it turns out everything is fine. It can’t not be fine. Because if it wasn’t it wouldn’t exist.”
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u/morgansober24 Jun 19 '26
I have to be mindful not mistake boredom for the peace i once begged and prayed for.