Concerning Practice ...

"...practice should not be an ordeal."

From a Tenzin Palmo Interview ...

Obviously being relaxed doesn’t mean that you make no effort. To become effortless takes a lot of effort. It’s good to compare it to learning an instrument or learning a sport. When you learn an instrument, it takes an awful lot of time to just learn the scales, and then eventually when you have completely mastered the instrument, the music plays for you. But you still have to keep practicing. And it takes an awful lot of practice. Nonetheless, if you diligently practice, hours and hours and hours and hours, you probably won’t get it. You’ll probably just end up hurting your fingers. The very best players, when they are practicing, put everything they’ve got into it. But then they leave it for a while. And it’s the same in dharma practice. One has to find a balance. I don’t say that when you leave it you forget all about the dharma or practice, but there have to be times when you throw yourself into it, and then there are times when you just relax and realize that wherever you go, you cannot get out of the dharma. The dharma is here. And the dharma is in your heart. Where else would it be?