I realized recently that the Ashtanga Yoga format has brought home the real import of effortless action. In this yoga practice, you learn a sequence that you do each day. You hold every asana in the sequence for a specified count—you don’t spend extra time on a pose because you want to perfect/improve it. You do what you are able to, move on. If you aren’t satisfied with the day’s practice, no issues—there’s always tomorrow.
(I recall telling something similar to a student of meditation, as well. Don’t be disheartened if you miss a day of practice—you have tomorrow, and the day after, and so on.)
This is a perfect metaphor for many embodied practices, I feel. (Isn’t living an embodied art as well?)
There is no room, no time, no space for thinking. You are simply flowing in action, and while you may think before the practice (“Ohh, perhaps I can try this in Prasarita Paadottanasana…”) or after (“Ahh, I could have held Urdhva Dhanurasan a bit longer…”), it really doesn’t matter. Of course, you can spend time reflecting upon the practice but I often feel that that’s an exercise for its own sake—you can engage in it if you like!
Being aware OF… as you practise, is really what it takes, apart from “Sa tu dīrgha kāla nairantarya satkārā ‘sevito dṛḍhabhūmiḥ,” or (translation: mine) “long-term, consistent and without a break, consuming (or partaking of) with utmost honor is what creates steady grounding,” and that is Maharshi Patanjali’s definition of Abhyaasa, or practice.
And the results are delivered in perfect timing, as they should be. As you go about the daily practice, you marvel at the smoothness of action, the effortless stability, the optimized movements, the lightness of breath. And you didn’t even think about achieving any of that—all of it manifested as a natural consequence of the daily, “unthinking” yet aware practice.
This, to me, is pure effortlessness. While there may be physical stress and effort involved, the mind remains free, flowing. There is no fixation on outcomes, no obsession with “how to,” and so on. At a certain juncture, you see that the point of the practice is the practice itself. It becomes a goal unto itself, and then you are truly home, free… as you are released from any and all ideas related to the perfect practice, or perfection in practice, or a perfect practitioner.