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

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Any hosers, question from the chat line.

What are some skillful means when you lose inspiration in the practice?

So first, just to say that we ought to have some measure of tolerance for the waxing and waning of inspiration.

And every time there's a period of lower inspiration, it's not a problem to be fixed.

You know, one has to bear with the kind of vicissitudes of inspiration.

And we could say that the path is a dialectic between making a kind of comfortable Dharma home

and the rug being pulled out from under us.

And sometimes the kind of, it's true, the cozy Dharma home phase can last too long. Too cozy can be deadening.

And so the process of falling in love with the Dharma sometimes resembles the process of falling in love with a person.

And there is falling in love and staying in love.

And we all know people who love falling in love, but aren't so sure how to stay in love.

And maybe partially we need to relinquish the need for intensity and novelty, the kind of hunger for novelty.

And maybe sometimes we cultivate the ability, even in times of low inspiration.

We cultivate the ability to re-find

why we fell in love initially.

Sometimes I've had with folks kind of struggling with inspiration, I've asked them to imagine

never practicing again. No sitting, no retreat, no sangha, no informal practice of of mindfulness no contemplation of wisdom and love none of it

then i ask how do you feel now and they say horrible that's a horrifying thought.

And so there's something there.

We're going to have to keep going.

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