We may live our life attempting to avoid sloth, engaging in endless activity, to the extent we feel as if we are running on a hamster wheel. However, regardless of how much we may work and produce, a valuable or genuine contribution doesn't necessarily occur if what we do is not connected. We may produce things that are useless or even harmful.
This is often a place of resentment; we do not understand why there is no relief or gratification, why nature does not reward us, why those we are in relationship with are not happy, and why disenfranchised people are not satisfied when we believe we do so much for them.
Our real work is to discover what is wanted of us, and not to merely do what we want to do. The most challenging work there is—showing up in full, Erotic, sensory presence—is not only overlooked in our common paradigm; it is warned against, as is the deeper work of reception that can only occur during inaction.
If we are to take effective, beneficial action in the world, receptivity should be the lion's share of the work so we understand the nature of what we are in, what is being asked, and precisely when it is being asked. Sloth, then, is execution without consulting the larger field of desire; it is an attempt to dominate nature. Implicit is the dominant person's statement, "You will get what I want to give you and you will be grateful."
Our typical conception of sloth does not consider that because nature is an interactive process, the "how" is as important as the "what." It is not good enough to simply labor; this is true sloth. We must engage in everything as a labor of love as that is the only thing worth producing.
To miserably grind away at something and spread fumes of our resentment, or to demand kudos for our effort, is sloth. Nature and Eros are not impressed with our suffering. We do not receive a badge of honor as we would in the masculine-based duty paradigm. Anyone can produce results; only those who are not slothful can produce states of being so powerful they are able to move others.
An extraordinarily well-disguised form of sloth is perfectionism. It simply means we are so consumed with our attention focused on how we will be perceived that we are too slothful to listen when Eros says something is complete.
The idea that we should work and grind and produce in deprivation and are then rewarded with indulgence is climax consciousness. This whole concept is sloth, as none of us is required in any part of the process.
In Eros, on the other hand, our whole being is always required. Our process must change to one of regularly alternating production, creativity, peaking, and rest without saving up "check out" time. The process of Eros is never-ending.
It is building a life that does not keep checking off the checklist, hoping to come to an end; but to do and be with what is here in front of us now with such full love and attention that there is nowhere else to rush off to. Everything is completed in excellence, and then the next thing rolls in and we do the same. Maybe we rest for a while, and we do that with love and care and attention and not in a way where we are checking out. To live the rest of our life in this way would be a virtuous life.