Path of effortlessness

Despite the apparent hardships and efforts required to follow paths of self-realization, many of the original teachers of such methods stress their ease. Christ said "my yoke is easy and my burden light". The hardships may arise because the person practising the method wants the personal self to be in control, as in meditation techniques where the injunction "the mind must become quiet" may be interpreted as "the mind must be made quiet". In fact, the mind cannot make the mind become still, because the "making" is a mental activity. The process of transcendental meditation has been described as the path of effortlessness because it involves a passive letting go rather than an active putting things away. By itself and without effort the mind is in a state of silence.