The End of Struggle
Efforts are not the expenditure of energy — they are the misuse of energy that leads to fatigue and inauthentic action. The need for effort is an obstacle placed by the sense of importance. Contrary to the mind-worm’s logic, efforts are not necessary. In fact, whatever you think requires effort can be done better without it. If it cannot, then you should not do it — at least not in the same context. Effort is the cost of acting out of alignment.
When you drop effort, you do not necessarily give up challenges or endeavors. You only give up the struggle. Any activity out of alignment — one taken up from obligation, compulsion, or self-importance — will not survive without effort. When effort disappears, such activities die naturally.
What remains is what flows.
Economy of Efforts
If you live for social validation, dropping effort will feel fatal. You may think that without effort you’d accomplish nothing, that meaning itself would dissolve. But if your life is already intrinsically aligned, dropping effort will seem less daunting — even freeing. Still, beware: many “intrinsic” motivations are secretly extrinsic.
If you are doing something for an audience — imaginary or otherwise — your motivation is extrinsic, even if you are the only spectator.
Efforts and Laziness: Two Ends of the Same Error
Do not confuse dropping efforts with laziness. Laziness is the rear end of efforts. When you drop one, you drop the other. The lack of vitality that characterizes laziness is burnout from unnecessary psychic activity — mental efforts that go undirected because awareness is missing.
Laziness is the path of least resistance. Effortlessness is the path of no resistance.
The Fourth Way and the Paradox of Effort
In the Fourth Way, the “efforts” spoken of — Work Efforts — are not efforts as we usually understand them. Spiritual efforts are effortless. For example, self-observation requires the uncritical watching of impressions, without the mind’s automatic judgments and narratives. These judgments are mechanical efforts — involuntary attempts to maintain a self-image.
The real Work is to drop those efforts and endure the existential wobbliness that follows when the support of effort disappears.
The Physics of Energy
Effort is not a prerequisite for any activity, even strenuous physical activity. Effort is not exertion; it is squandering. Intense exercise and spiritual practice both require energy expenditure, but never effort. Energy must flow through oneself, not be hoarded. That flow expands capacity; conservation shrinks it. Effort siphons off energy as you act, turning growth into deterioration. The more you rely on effort, the more you lose the vitality that would have come naturally from energy in motion.
Dropping Efforts
Dropping efforts begins by noticing when they appear and shifting your activity into a form that does not require them. This may mean changing your approach, your environment, or even your job. The more aligned you are, the more subtle efforts try to sneak back in through pride, self-observation, or a misplaced sense of duty.
Your task is to recognize it and let it go again.
Reclamation of Energy
As effort’s presence diminishes, you will find your energy expanding and your emotions becoming pure.
You will have no doubts about whether you are living correctly or doing the right thing.
Effort is a symptom of misalignment.
When it ends, what remains is natural motion — the effortless precision of being correctly placed in the flow of life.
