Deshi:  I heard that some aikidoka have halted their training because it has become monotonous, tedious, repetitive, boring.

Sensei:  So acts the immature spirit.

Deshi:  What is immature?  Cannot these things describe some elements of our practice and/or some moments in our training?

Sensei:  To be sure, yes.  However, the need to be entertained or pleasured is something only the immature spirit requires in order to remaining constant in its pursuits. 

Deshi:  So what should we do with such understandings of our training?  Try to purify them out?  Try to never experience them?

Sensei:  This would be equally immature. 

Deshi:  Then what?

Sensei:  Descriptions like boredom and such are not answers - they are not ends.  They are beginnings, they are questions, calls for reflection, they point to where reconciliation is still needed, to where growth is possible, and to where maturity awaits us.  Rather than seeing boredom as something that can describe what we are experiencing, as seekers upon the Way, we should look at boredom, or rather our capacity for boredom, as describing something about ourselves – no more, no less.  In this way, boredom becomes not antithetical to training but firmly a part of our continuing development through our training.  In this way, we mature, and our training moves firmly beyond the need for entertainment and/or pleasure.