As a human being, we have everything we need. It's enough suffering to give us incentive to go on, but not so much that we don't know where to turn.

Obviously being relaxed doesn't mean that you make no effort.

I'd say look at the teacher's students. Do you want to be like them? If you see a good and harmonious sangha, and if they're practicing well and are good people with good hearts, then you have a cause for trust.

Buddhism helps us to overcome our endless ego grasping mind to open up to something so much more spacious and genuinely meaningful.

You can certainly learn how to rest in the nature of the mind.

In a monastic setting, if someone doesn't want to obey the rules and just wants to live the way they've always lived as a lay person, then why did they become ordained? They have no sense that they have to give something up to gain so much.

People talk over and over about bodhichitta, but so often their heart is quite cold.