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Over the last ten years I have done a lot of letting go: news, television, novels, computer games. Recently though I was considering many of these things were distractions from the spiritual path, but they also lent my life a joyful quality, and I found I was losing my joy in life. Many things that used to give me joy, were now appearing as merely neutral. Even my morning coffee is no longer the joy it once was.

The process of letting go eventually leads one to live a life that is lean and devoid of the juicier aspects of lay life. For example, for a long time I read The Lord of the Rings every year, and I used to take great pleasure in that book, which Tolkien intended as a mythology for our times. So it now appears to me that being too drastic in letting go is also a danger on the path — we don’t have to live as monastics, even though our tendencies may take us in that direction.

I find it interesting, that when I was focussed on Buddhism all these things disappeared from my life, and now I am finding my life is too lean, and I’m seeing the need to cherish and protect the things that give me joy. That doesn’t mean I will go back to computer games, I think there are too many negatives to that, but I may broaden my reading somewhat, for starters.

Also I thought it useful to pay more attention to what gives me joy. One thing I noticed was that I feel more joyful when I am not thinking, like when I am focussed on my breath, or when I am riding my bicycle and am too engrossed in the feel of my tires on the path. When I’m busy being in the moment.

As persons, we’re responsible to culture and to others, and we are constantly changing, open-ended phenomena, not isolated, self-existent phenomena. We are part of a spatial, temporal, and social complex, not standing outside of it in a dualistic relation.

Jay L. Garfield, “To Be or Not to Be”

Sometimes compassion will arise spontaneously, like the clouds parting to reveal the blue sky. At other times we may have to make a conscious effort, which is a bit more like imagining what the blue sky looks like, even when it’s obscured by clouds.

Andy Puddicombe, “10 Tips for Living More Mindfully”

I see them as guiding lights for behaviour in daily life. They can inspire, even when they choose not to be teachers. I also think Bodhisattvas show up in many unexpected places, especially when circumstances are difficult.

I would even say, anyone you see being acclaimed as a Bodhisattva in a religious setting is unlikely to truly be one.

I remember reading about hot boredom and then cool boredom as legitimate or charted parts of the meditation path. Try not to think "I mistakenly had the meditation that isn't supposed to happen". Maybe get curious about the boredom? or say "Chaat" and then return to the breath

I'm taking a break from meditating as part of my usual cycles. It will call me again I have experience of my cycles spiral learning

With breath meditation, my understanding is that all manner of thougts will arise and our practice is the same: gently return to the breath. It should be the same with body scans, gently return to scanning the body.
The mind will conjure up endless tricks to suck us in. 'What does boredom during meditation mean?' is just one such example.