Spiritual Exhaustion Is Still the Path

You don’t have to feel inspired. You don’t have to glow. You don’t have to carry wisdom in every step.

Some days, the path is heavy. Some days, the cushion feels like stone. Some days, you’re tired of even trying.

That’s still the path.

You don’t fail the Dharma just because you’re worn out. You don’t lose your way just because your heart needs rest.

This too is part of it. The fatigue. The fog. The feeling of going through the motions.

You keep showing up. Not because it’s radiant. Because it’s real.

The quiet days. The heavy days. The “I don’t know why I’m doing this” days.

They count. They teach. They soften.

Zen isn’t only found in stillness and insight. It’s found in the honest moment when you whisper to yourself, “I’m here, but I’m tired.”

And you stay anyway.

No need to fake clarity. No need to perform devotion. No need to force meaning out of emptiness.

The exhaustion is sacred too. Because it’s true. And truth is the doorway.

Rest is not retreat. Stillness is not failure. Pause is not absence.

Let your practice grow wide enough to hold your fatigue.

You are not a machine for awakening. You are a being made of breath and breakage. And even when you have nothing to offer, your presence is enough.

Spiritual exhaustion is still the path. Because the path includes all of you. Not just the light. But the flicker. The fade. The silence you didn’t choose.

And even that is practice.