Meditation is like taking a shit.

In general laziness is something that is seen as negative. Both religious and secular, political and economic, ideologies have condemned it as bad. Sloth was one of the seven deadly sins and both Capitalism and Communism have used violence to discourage it.

Laziness just means not doing something or at least procrastinating about it.

Everything we do in this life is generally utterly pointless. We can accumulate all manner of material things, build a great reputation and surround ourselves with people we love and who love us back, but ultimately and in a short period of time this will all be nothing.

Generally in Dharma practice we use impermanence as encouragement to practice and as a gateway to understanding.

I could list all manner of reasons why I left closed retreat, however the main issue was really that I set goals, lists of things to achieve and the good old dual trap of hope and fear.

There is a story about one of the Buddhas disciples having problems with meditation. The Buddha helped him by asking him about his pre-monastic career as a musician and how he would tune his guitar or whatever. When he answered "not too tight, not too loose", the Buddha said this was also how he should meditate.

So in terms of our overall practice it's essential to thing of impermanence and the other thoughts that turn our minds to renunciation and the longing for freedom.

So how does this all related to laziness?

If we practice with a sense of wanting or needing to achieve something, we will fall into a trap. Yet at the same time we have to practice.

We have to eat, sleep and shit. These happen with minimal planning and effort. Similarly, if we are just persistent with meditation and make it part of our everyday life, it will come naturally over time and we will benefit greatly without too much drama and bullshit.

I'm not a meditator or practitioner, but on the occasions when I have played at doing retreat, it all seems to have gone better when I've taken a very relaxed approach. Sure having structure and doing sessions is helpful, but sometimes doing nothing is also good.

I could elaborate, but it seems contradictory and the way we elaborate all the time is already a major cause of suffering.