From the view daily here reported on,
the complaint with the way the mind commonly operates
(which causes a few people to seriously search for a way to radically change same)
simply put, is that  --   it is boring;
so while you could say that the so-called struggle to: achieve-enlightenment
is an effort by the mind to comprehend itself, equally justified could it be described as:
the mind seeking relief from the tedium of its own routine running,
and though this telling lacks the metaphysical cachet of:
being-on-a-spiritual-mission, or: trying-to-correct-some-flaw-in-man,
one of the tricks to ever getting anywhere in this endeavor is: complete honesty  --
that along with finally realizing that there is no such thing:
all there is are endless ways of seeing what everyone sees as only being either: this-way-or-that --
an infinite stream of honesties  --  each more revealing than the previous;
ergo, any fresh way of framing to yourself  --
what it is that you are trying to do with yourself  --
                                                      is of great value.
 
 
 

Listening and observing clearly shows that ordinary people
have no such complaint with the way their mind operates;
they certainly know what boredom is and commonly claim to be so,
indeed in the most industrialized/civilized areas of the world,
larger sums are spent on combating same (entertainment) than on food,
but collective men do not think about their boredom as being caused by
their own mind, that is: their boredom with its running;
thus do they go to and pay others to provide them with mentally digested distractions to temporarily relieve the tedium (via movies, magazines, political & religious spectacles,
net surfing, video games, social conversation).
 
 

Boredom can be a real problem (at the physical level, viz animals in zoos),
and with men at the mental level, the more time they have free from pursuing
survival needs, the greater is the mind’s need for something to do
(you might care to note that people still living a sustenance existence suffer this not;
when there is nothing to do, they, unlike their sophisticated counterparts,
can simply sit quietly and peacefully, doing nothing;
‘tis neither a better nor worse condition  --   simply how it is).
 
 

Men have discovered in fact that perhaps the most torturous form of punishment is stimuli deprivation whereby boredom becomes an ever oppressive constant;
being kept in dark, stark, silent conditions will cause prisoners to reveal
what they intended to conceal, far more dependably than
any brain-washing-drug ever developed;
it’s as though the mind, via prolonged boredom, can drive itself crazy;
through lack of something new to do  --  tear itself apart.
 
 

Men do not reflect on this matter since, under normal circumstances,
boredom never reaches this pitch;
in things mental, same as physical, men instinctively regulate themselves,
and they will find relief from neural tedium before it ever becomes a danger.
 
 

But what happens if what successfully distracts others from their mental boredom
does not do so for you  --
the common response is either:
drugs, or the search for ever stranger stories.
Well known for the history of man is that the ingestion of certain plants
will mechanically alter the brain’s conscious operations,
and produce perceptions so unlike routine ones that boredom is not a problem,
but also quickly discovered was that regular use thereof would destroy their effect,
or the user.
The approach more commonly employed by those  whose mental boredom
cannot be cured by the activities which normally do so in the lives of most men is:
the search for explanations of what is going on in the lives of men
which are unknownto most of them.
Here too are outside sources usually sought;
this minority group of the bored will seek out and pay others to provide them with stories they have never heard which are sufficiently fresh and stimulating to temporarily lift them from their boredom
(via everything from supernatural revelations to science fiction).

The mind wants to hear stories about its own unique, private world;
the world of inner reality,
and most people’s minds are easily satisfied (witnessed by the crowds at
theatres and churches, and the hours men spend reading, listening to music, watching television, and conversing),
but the minds of the exceptions noted demand more;
theirs seek stories about man’s inner reality that are never to be found in
the popular culture & arts of their time;
they dig for stories ignored, or shunned by the majority;
tales purporting to uncover the true nature of man’s inner world
which the outside world considers too obscure, obscene, or irrational, all in all:
stories simply not presently popular,
and at first these marginal myths do provide the few with a momentary time-out from
the boredom of the contemporarily popular ones,
but as with the aforementioned drugs,
continued exposure thereto drains them of their potency.
The non mainstream stories regarding man’s inner reality must become
more and more exotic to stimulate their minds (as ‘tis said is true with pornography),
                                                              but this path too is as finite as that of drugs.
 
 

One avenue that is a profit turning alternative (if not the only one)
is the construction of your own non standard stories,
which are not derived from unbridled, meaningless flights of your own mind's imagination, and speculation,
but from the steady study of everything going on in life:
that is where to begin:
finding new, expedient explanations for what is going in the life of man
with no consideration given to any of the ones other men accept:
start there  –  it is an inexhaustible field,
for men’s minds are constantly making additions to the inner reality,
so that is the first line of relief from boredom of the mind.
 
 

The ultimate activity (which does not preclude nor prohibit the above)
is the search for new, self authored stories to explain the thing that is  –