Effortless Presence

[adrian284]

I want to make sure I understand what is meant by "effortless presence" in terms of meditation, especially mindfulness meditation. Does this mean to avoid forcing yourself (e.g. tensing muscles) to be present?

Is it similar to when  you ask someone to listen very closely (e.g. to hear a barely audible noise) they tend to tense their ear muscles to listen closely (effortfully), even though they really should just relax and simply direct their attention (effortless) to the sound to get the best results?

I think I got it down right now when meditating. I relax my body and patiently divert my attention to the present moment as long as I can. I want to make sure I understand what not to do.

Edited February 22, 2016 by adrian2
clarifying why I'm asking

[Leo Gura]

What would help you is my Do Nothing meditation video and the Free Will vs Determinism video.

The next time you sit down to meditate, try this: Don't manipulate your experience at all. Just sit and allow everything as though you had zero control over life.

Because, guess what?

You have zero control over life.

All your manipulations during meditation are delusions. There is no you to manipulate anything. You just feed the delusion when you *try* to do stuff.

Just sit and allow EVERYTHING.