MEANING OF "LOST": A SHORT STORY

A writer friend sent him a tweet welcoming him back to his blog and asking why he had quit it four weeks earlier.  He thanked him, and then said he stopped the blog because after three and a half years and 421 postings he was burnt out on it, which was not true, but as the full story would not fit into 140 characters, he left it at that.  He did manage, though, before his characters ran out, to say that he felt lost.

But what exactly did he mean when he said he felt lost?  Half of him was dead, was what he meant.  His attunement, his sense of God's presence, remained in tact, but it was stunted now, not fully there, not complete.  And no books, no movies, not fancy meals, no elaborate workouts, not even his many friends were an adequate substitute for what he'd lost.

What he learned from this is that vigilance, ceaseless attention to every detail on one's spiritual path was imperative for the aspirant.  The Atman, in his case, was the detail that he did not account for throughout the month, last month.  He had become complacent, was taking the Atman, his Chosen Ideal, for granted, forgetting the years that it took him to make this connection.  We lost things despite ourselves sometimes, he learned, and it was only by grace that we got it back, he also learned.