The habit patterns of the human mind are very strong and make it seem that the hard way is easy and the easy way is hard.
... inherited collective mind-patterns ... have kept humans in bondage to suffering for eons.
Once you see what you are doing or have been doing, you also see its futility, and that unconscious pattern then comes to an end by itself. Awareness is the greatest agent for change.
By watching the mechanics of the mind, you step out of its resistance patterns, and you can then allow the present moment to be.
Vigilance in oneself is very important. Vigilance means to be alert to what happens inside, so you can catch an old, collective habit pattern.
The particular egoic patterns that you react to most strongly in others and misperceive as their identity tend to be the same patterns that are also in you, but that you are unable or unwilling to detect within yourself.