The following talk was given at the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California.

Please visit our website at audiodrama.org.

I spent a good part of the summer in the wilderness or in the edges of the wilderness playplaces.

Recently I was at one place where there were some people who were quite skilled and had wilderness skills.

And they were going to help some of the people who didn't have much skills.

Talk about how to navigate in the wilderness.

And so one of the skills is what to do when you're lost.

And so I want to talk about, and then later there's a friend who's studied with a Indigenous person in Canada and a Indigenous person herself.

And she told the story of her elder finding someone who was lost, a boy who was lost.

And that's the story really had a big impact on her and helped and really had a big impact on her Buddhist meditation practice.

So this idea of loss has come to my mind.

And I think not so far, not so much a stretch to think about how it is a metaphor being lost for how people are confused or lost or not know how to find their way in their lives.

It can be lost in relationships confused, uncertain, what do we do now?

It could be in a sense of purpose in life or work.

It could be in oneself, once identity, once what's important for one, what are we supposed to do?

It could be lost with our emotional lives. Emotional lives are quite difficult.

And often not obviously rational or obviously therefore a clear reason that we can address.

So some people feel lost in their emotional life.

So this idea of being lost I think is somewhere there is a common human phenomenon.

So these two stories that I've been living with about being lost I think might be a nice reference point.

So the wilderness guides, a guide who is telling people what to do when they're lost,

is explained that the best thing you can do if you, as soon as you're lost,

...