The teaching presents effort and ease as inseparable aspects of authentic practice rather than as opposing poles to be chosen between. Effort is described as “right effort”: a gentle, continuous, and ordinary willingness to sit, to return to posture and breath, and to be present “not too much, not too little.” This is not the effort of straining for a special experience, but of allowing practice to be as steady and unremarkable as breathing or water flowing. When effort takes this form, it does not feel like something extra imposed on life; it becomes simply the natural expression of practice itself.

Ease, in this perspective, is not passivity or laziness, but the quiet lightness that appears when effort is free of grasping and ambition. When practice is driven by a gaining mind—wanting enlightenment, special states, or self-improvement—the mind tightens and meditation becomes burdensome. When one “just sits,” without chasing results or fighting thoughts, practice becomes relaxed and sustainable, and a sense of ease arises on its own. This ease is the fruit of non-attachment rather than the absence of discipline.

The relationship between effort and ease is framed as a kind of Middle Way: avoiding both laxity and excessive striving. The effort lies in maintaining posture, returning when the mind wanders, and sustaining alert awareness; the ease lies in not forcing, not struggling, and not trying to manufacture particular states of mind. In such balanced practice, awareness gradually feels “effortless,” even though a quiet, steady effort is still present. This is sometimes described as “effortless effort,” where sitting is stable and grounded like a mountain, yet relaxed and natural.

Beginner’s mind is the attitude that unifies these two dimensions. Approaching each moment freshly, without heavy expectations or comparisons, allows for wholehearted effort that is at the same time unburdened and at ease. In this way, effort is simply the expression of one’s true nature rather than an attempt to improve or fix it, and ease is the natural atmosphere that surrounds practice when there is no clinging to outcomes. Effort and ease then reveal themselves as two names for a single, undivided way of being.