The Illusion of Effort
La ilusión del esfuerzo
A meditation exploring how being present requires no effort and how our sense of struggle is itself the illusion we can learn to see through.
The Illusion of Effort
It is said that the world is an illusion.
They speak of maya.
And so right now, as always, you're witnessing this.
Returning to raw experience
Pay attention again to raw experience:
sensations in the body,
sounds,
the little bit of sight that we perceive through our closed eyes, simultaneously.
Pay attention to the mirroring experience of mind,
which creates sounds, images,
and sensations in the form of emotions.
Extremely simple, for the duration of this meditation.
And if that seems too much,
just for a few moments here and there,
experiment with completely letting go
and ignoring what the mind does.
It produces images and sounds,
sensations in the form of emotions.
Just completely ignore them.
No matter how wild they get, not important.
You have absolute priority and exquisite attention
to raw sensations, sounds, and images
happening now.
Being present requires no effort
Any sense of effort or struggle is the activity of the mind.
Being present requires no effort.
Take that statement to be absolutely true, irrefutable.
Being present requires no effort.
It's not a mantra.
It's not a way to talk yourself into something.
It's a sword
cutting through the illusion of resistance.
The journey from the mind to the heart requires no effort,
requires no force.
One step.
It is like sinking.
Effortless.
Any sense of struggle or effort
is a reminder that you're thinking.
Keep ignoring the mind.
Notice the intimacy with sensation, with sound.
How the world is an illusion
When they say the world is an illusion,
they don't mean it's not real.
So right now: sounds, sensations, thoughts.
How are they an illusion?
Illusion is that something is not what it appears to be.
We misinterpret our experience.
If our mind is racing,
we experience discomfort, emotions.
We interpret that it needs to stop for us to be okay.
We need to work and make an effort to calm the mind.
That is the illusion.
We feel that what we need
is in the world,
in some experience,
in some situation,
in some different moment,
some different future.
That is the illusion.
Cutting through illusion
How to cut through illusion:
What we long for, what we truly need,
already is.
Already is actualized.
Is already total.
Is already present.
What we need is already given.