Yogi: Checking effort is similar to checking awareness of an experience; and sometimes it feels so easy like the practice is happening by itself.
Sayadaw: You’re doing it right when you feel that way. Whether we check on our effort or awareness, since they work as a team, when you check any of those, you’re checking the meditating mind.
If we were not in a hurry to get somewhere in the Dhamma; not trying to put in effort, not trying to work hard to get something – if we weren’t in that frame of mind, and we just work steadily in a relaxed way but just kept doing it, the practice will happen by itself.
Greed wreaks the most havoc in the yogi’s practice in all my years of teaching. Despite having the information that if a quality of the mind is allowed to arise again and again, it will just get stronger, we still think that we might be able to get more if we try harder right away.
The longer we practice, the more we need to let nature do its work. If we keep interfering with the process of nature, we keep jamming the brakes in a way.