With writing, I’ve not yet reached that point. Non-fiction writing feels like I’m trying to physically pull the pages out of my skull, it doesn’t feel creative or fun. The last time I actually had fun with writing was when I was half this age.

I do have something unique, I lack an interior monologue so my experience of meditations such as vipassana is quite different. I don’t have to tell my mind to be quiet. So I could leverage that. But I think only a very small percentage of people would find themselves in that.

Talking about work and freedom etc., whenever I heard Osho or Barry Long, or more recently, Eckhart Tolle talking with someone about work they always advised enjoyment and/or service as the two most desirable criteria. If there was no intrinsic pleasure or satisfaction in the work then one shouldn’t be doing it. Obvious really, although many people seem to resent “the daily grind” as they feel they have little or no choice, no freedom, they’re ‘trapped’ by financial constraints, obligations, or lack of qualifications, for example. Not to mention fear of change…self-doubt…

All three also acknowledged things can be complex, eg BL, always the practical Aussie, said that if it simply isn’t realistic to give up an unsatisying job then one should fully “surrender” to the work and the situation until it was possible to move on: (to paraphrase), “Quit or surrender – know what you’re doing and why, so there’s no room for any more energy-draining complaints.”

But BL was also tough with some people, confrontational, as when a man objected that he had to pay the rent and so had to stay in his current job that he thoroughly disliked, his response was “Well, if it’s as bad as you’re making it out to be then don’t pay the rent! Why on earth ruin your life doing something that makes you unhappy?”

The point was that it was time for that particular man to take strong action, to make a radical change, to stop rationalising his ‘stuckness’. Which, NP, you yourself have done, of course, as, I’m sure, have many of our fellow-travellers here, myself included.

I checked it out. Some parts were good, others not. All in all, it was something produced by someone living in a bubble.
A writer needs critical feedback and eventually an editor. It is difficult for an artist of any form to be objective about their creativity. Feedback.

I’ve wanted to write a book for a long time, I have a whole stack of concepts I’ve looked at over various periods of my life. Probably the most fleshed out is a set of 3-4 chapters of a novel. I might return to that.

But I’m starting to realise that if I don’t have fun writing it, it’s not going to happen. That’s why I might abandon some promising concepts for non-fiction books, I’m beginning to feel it might not be juicy enough.

In a way, it’s an acknowledgement that writing for a high ideal like “I want to encapsulate my spiritual path so that it’s of use to others” isn’t a good enough reason to put in months or years of effort. I’m beginning to see It has to be something which supports your mental process and feeds your creativity.

Perhaps that is a better guide for doing something, that it should make you joyful. I’ve been watching the videos of a Norwegian man named Bjorn Andreas Bull-Hansen on YouTube, he is an economist, Viking novel author, and woodsman. He has some interesting ideas about freedom and independence. It’s been refreshing.

Yes indeed. 54% of the planet’s population now has a smartphone, and for quite a lot of them it’s their first computing device. And they are immediately confronted with Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Google who suck up all the data about them and encourage them to spend as much time as possible on these virtual pursuits. Phone zombies indeed!

But even worse are the game zombies in China and Japan, where internet gaming cafes are still a big phenomenon. These people often spend from early morning until late nights on their favourite games, playing pretty much non-stop in environments where there’s dim artificial light so their day-night rhythms don’t kick in so strongly.

Gaming used to be an important part of my life, I even had a brush with game addiction when I used to play quite a bit more ‘World of Warcraft’ than was strictly healthy. Then my life took a turn, and I had a serious look at whether I was spending my time on the right things. That was when I returned to spirituality, and old pleasurable activities started dropping away, first games, then fiction books, then television… I still watch the occasional movie or sports match, but I can’t say it grips me like it used to.

It’s funny how many people turn to spirituality when they’ve had a life-changing event. It’s like we always know what is truly important in this life, but it takes a confrontation with infirmity, change, death to bring it home to us.