Effortless meditation
Recently I clicked on an ad on Facebook promoting effortless mindfulness. I’ve been seeing a lot of these ads lately, so I wanted to see what other meditation teachers were calling “effortless.” I was disappointed to learn that they didn’t really mean effortless in the way I understand it, and that they used the term effortless as more of a buzzword than literal. A mindfulness system that might be rebranded as effortless.
The word effortless in meditation usually has a specific meaning and is often related to non-dual traditions that teach that the perfection of consciousness is already present and therefore any attempt to achieve something that you already are is misguided and misleading. Effortless meditation is called non-meditation in tantric Tibetan Buddhist traditions and is often related to the righteous sitting of zazen meditation in Soto Zen Buddhism.
Effortless meditation requires no adjustments, no manipulation, no expectations and no goals. As the instructions go, there is nothing to remove and nothing to add, there is literally nothing to do and that is why it is called effortless. It is also called the natural state of meditation because you do not create it, you simply recognize the open presence of consciousness that is already available and present.
Nowadays it seems like people use the term effortless to mean easy or even fun, but it can muddy the waters of meditation and isn’t really effortless at all. What I described above as effortless is known as the highest perspective in the traditions of meditation wisdom, but you can also begin to experience effortless meditation in simple mindfulness exercises, in fact, it is important that you do so.
The right amount of effort in meditation
First of all, effort in meditation is not a dirty word. Diligence, patience and perseverance have long been a stable backbone of meditation training and have their place. In order to start meditation, it is also crucial to know what to do and what not to do. It takes skills of increasing subtlety to become self-aware of the processes of the mind.
You can read my instructions for essential meditation exercises
HERE where I balance the effort of mindfulness with the non-effort of just being in meditation.
The most important element and effort required in mindfulness meditation is knowing when you are focusing on the object of meditation, usually your breathing, and when you are distracted. When you notice yourself distracted, make an effort to redirect the mind to the task at hand.
In classical Buddhism, there is a metacognition at work that diligently watches and ensures that you complete your task so that you are not distracted. This internal ‘watchdog’ also ensures that you are neither too sleepy nor too excited, even when you are not distracted and paying attention to the object of meditation.
All this requires effort and dedication and becomes the meditator’s familiar playground. Observing your attention and making large and subtle adjustments. If you are too sleepy, you have to adjust yourself to wake up more and if you are too excited, you have to adjust yourself to calm down.
So essentially it takes effort to keep watch and adjust your attention. However, if you don’t discover the effortless part of this process, you may remain stuck in this strenuous meditation practice for years without ever realizing a calm mind. It can make you hyper-vigilant and meditation can even become a stressful practice.
Finding the right balance
The real effortlessness of mindfulness meditation is learning when to do nothing. When you’re distracted, that’s not the time to do nothing; that is when you need effort to bring the mind home to the current object. But once your attention is focused on breathing, you can start doing less and less until you’re doing nothing at all. The reason this works is because a clear, undistracted presence is actually a natural part of the nature of the mind. The effort of mindfulness is to clear away distractions and reveal the potential of your natural calm presence.
Once you’ve caught the distraction and brought your attention back home to the present moment, and you’ve caught and adjusted to the subtle dullness and over-excitement clouding your clarity, you can now relax and do nothing. This is the effortless part of mindfulness; to simply and calmly stay with your meditation object, without making any adjustments or adjustments.
This is the true effortlessness of mindfulness meditation. Tibetan masters would say that there is nothing to do at this point, nothing to add and nothing to take away. In my instructions I usually call it ‘just being’.
Constantly adjusting and thinking about whether your meditation is working or not only becomes an obstacle in an endless game of cat and mouse. This is called over exertion, which means there must be a balance, or at least the right amount of effort, before you release it.
It can be difficult to let go of the effort to adjust and adapt your meditation, but a good way to monitor progress is to notice that you are able to watch the breathing without controlling it. This is the key to doing nothing and letting go of the effort to become the naturally calm observer. When you watch the breathing, you tend to control it. But if you can see your breath “breathing itself,” you’ll be well on your way to finding effortlessness.
Simply resting on the breath and doing nothing but paying attention creates a certain calm presence of mind. It is becoming familiar with this calm presence that constitutes a true meditation practice. The more familiar you become with this natural calm presence within formal meditation, the more you can begin to integrate this effortless wisdom into every aspect of your life. The art of inaction is the integrated ‘non-action’ into your daily behavior. You can read more about it
HERE.
In closing, I would like to share with you a very powerful and simple meditation instruction from Tantric Buddhism, which includes effort and non-effort. It says, “There is absolutely nothing to meditate on, but do not be distracted.” Here we have the effortless way of meditation, where you do not concentrate on anything or strive for anything in particular, but make an effort not to be distracted from your natural, effortless consciousness.
Written by Chad Foreman
Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation and has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who lived in a retreat hut for six years and studied and practiced meditation full-time. He now has over twenty years of experience teaching meditation. Chad likes regularly
Meditation retreats on the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Online meditation coaching, provides three online programs –
The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to gradually guide people from the basic principles of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of consciousness.
Breathwork
to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and
The bliss of inner fire
This is a Buddhist tantric method to clear energy blockages and connect with the clear light of bliss. You can also get Chad’s free ebook now Insights on the go.