I appreciate I’m not entirely consistent on this subject. I suggest various healing techniques but stay vague about meditation, yet suggest it as a core practice.

The challenge is in recommending something that has a caliber of excellence, is widely available, and at modest cost. That combination has not been available for awhile that I’ve found.

Because people take up a practice and only know what they like or have tried, there is no real forum for objective information on the subject. One can only speak to people who used to do something and now do your practice to get a real comparison. But it’s entirely subjective and has a bias. Getting many samples is hard. And verifying key details without doing it yourself.

From speaking with people who do Vipassana, I understand it is difficult to sustain and requires some concentration. Hard to keep doing. Effortless is easier and some stay with it for life. I prefer to suggest a practice one will do happily every day as that will bring more results.

People also often identify with their teaching and practice. Coming out in one camp or another becomes divisive.

I also find pure awareness in the simple practise of Shavasana.

You should write about what you do also. As well as talk of the other forms. Not to prove which is better but just as a desrciption

Watching the mind is known as Mindfulness and yes, it’s much better effortless.

But what I mean by effortless meditation is to contrast it from many traditional practices. Many meditations use techniques of effort – stilling the mind, focusing on a candle, etc. These are difficult and can create strain. They also tend to hold the attention in the mind. This understanding arose in part from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. In there, he describes the 8 limbs of Yoga and the results of correct practice. He describes boundless awareness with sharp focus. People have come to understand this as technique rather than result.

It’s right up there with ideas like you have to be a monk to awaken. How is it then that the vast majority of spiritual works were written by householders?

Many other meditations are what one might call contemplative. Dwelling on an idea, aphorism, or painting. While there is value in that, it still keeps the focus in the mind.

Understanding attention without effort is not very familiar to people with an ego. Yet it is the natural flow of the mind. You hear beautiful music, your attention goes there automatically. When a technique is about attention alone, without effort or force, we could say it is effortless. When the attention is given an effortless task, the mind will naturally drift inwards to it’s source and then transcend both the technique and mind.

The difference can seem very small but it is like night and day.

Far fewer techniques are available that are effortless. But the numbers and availability are growing. I run into them here and there in surprising places. Bija or seed mantra techniques are the simplest.

Last year, I read about thousands of Buddhist monks in SE Asia being taught one form of this.

When an experience of your infinite nature is part of your routine life, it supports everything and is the foundation of any true practice, as Patanjali outlined. It is Raja yoga, the practice of kings.

Thanks for the question. I vacillate over discussion of specific techniques as I try to stay non-denominational here. (laughs)