The Boredom Monks

The Boredom Monks they were called, their directive was to not allow their minds to wander, nor to focus on something particular. Neither were they allowed to go blank, they had to be present they had to pay attention to things but they had to maximize the time they were bored. For boredom was considered to be the purest form of consciousness, the state that led to human curiousity exploration and growth. The order believed humans had stopped being curious once boredom was satiated, humankind was in stasis. A constantly bored state of mind, one that was difficult to achieve, was the only way out of the intellectual rut.

It was hard. The mind does not like constant boredom, it seeks patterns order even when there's none to keep itself occupied. It latches on to the most mundane boring obvious things if that means getting out of the boredom prison. And it starts noticing patterns where none should have been. A monk with ten years of constant practice could tell the exact hour minute and second of a clock merely by its ticks. More advanced masters could distinguish individual house flies by their flight patterns, even their personality types.

It was a cause of serious concern among the general populace, particularly the learned ones, when news got around that the order had decided to assimilate with the general population and abandon the ascetic lifestyle for those that has practiced for longer than fifteen years. For they thought that because their beliefs were so important it was selfish to keep their practice, that elevated the human existence and pushed it towards growth and dynamicism, to themselves. They would become householders maybe even get jobs, and preach to other individuals that considered the growth of human society to be of paramount importance.