Regarding the effortlessness, I think it completely depends on the stage of the practice. I can relate to that, sometimes I do strain myself too much only to discover an effortless flow sometimes. But I understand that without that extreme effort put prior, I would not get that effortless flow. It's like yin-yang to an extent. Of course, someone who's very experienced will probably find it all mostly effortless, but to get to that stage in the first place, intense effort is required. If I was in a very anti-Zen state, like being "in my head" / feeling disconnected from my body - which I still get quite often unfortunately, as I work 60h/week+... if I felt like that and I really lacked momentum and I decided to take the effortless way, I would just not get out of it. I would be drowning in my own thoughts. I have experienced that so many times as I experimented with it. Only intense effort and intense focus could help me break through a major lack of Zen-momentum. Sometimes when I do have Zen momentum, if I put good effort and focus very intensely during the time I reserve just for Zen practice, just taking a walk and dropping any effort and just trying to be subtly aware makes sense all out of the sudden. But it drops without prior intense practice, at least that's what I have noticed on myself. I do hope to get to the point where I could just "ring the bells", but I'm not there yet and I would warn anyone new to the practice to stay away from shortcuts or anything involving effortlessness. It's an easy trap to fall into in the beginning. I fell into it after the first 6 months, when I made very good progress, I started to wonder, woah, it could be all so effortless. What followed is that I started taking the regular practice less seriously, and before I noticed, I got into the "thinking that I'm aware" thing - that set me back for like one year or more. It took me a long time to realize what I was doing and then to fix that.
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