Ajahn Amaro wrote in Small Boat, Great Mountain, “We get caught in the illusion, trying to make the self become something other.  As a result, we lose track of the real essence of the practice.  Don’t do something now to become enlightened in the future.  Just be awake now.

“A phase I like to use is “diligent effortlessness.”  There is a putting forth of energy.  There is a commitment.  There is a unity or integrity of purpose.  Yet there is also effortlessness.  Not pushing, not straining, not trying to get some thing, but just allowing the natural energy of the heart to function in a focused and free way.  “Be still and you will move forward on the tide of the spirit,” as they say in the Taoist tradition.”