The aim of spiritual work is to waken the spirit and realise our divine aspect. We call this freedom. However freedom is difficult because it comes with uncertainty & responsibility. So there is a strong part of us that would rather remain in the prison of fear & conditioning. We call this fearful part of ourselves Ego. The only way to reliably fight the Ego is through disciplined work. We must get into the habit of dailyness: spending an allotted time each day devoted to eventual freedom. And this is the paradox of practice: we subject ourselves to heaviness (discipline) in the hope that will encourage spirit (the essence of lightness) to manifest.