I spent about a year in home retreat, during which I lived like a monk: ate the same meals every day during a short feeding window, avoided all sensual pleasures, had no direct contact with people, and of course maintained strict celibacy.

This was actually fairly easy to do in seclusion.

However, after recently ending the retreat and returning to society, things got a lot tougher.

My office is full of delicious free food, including sugary candy. The stress of work made this and other gross pleasures very hard to resist. I started to think that since I try to live like a monk, the right thing would be to permanently abandon laity and spend the rest of my life in a monastery.

However, I was concerned I'd be bored to death.

Recently a different solution emerged.

I find that if I can just get completely absorbed in my work, my mental state becomes very wholesome and pure. I am tempted by nothing, and in fact feel joyful, energetic, mindful, and equanimous.

The key is to become completely absorbed. Outside distractions don't matter so much, the only effective disruptions come from my own mind - i.e. I get an overwhelming urge to get back to a state of agitated distraction (monkey mind).

Anything on the outside, such as external distractions, only has as much power as I care to grant it. So for example a noisy co-worker can't disrupt my concentration; I can only disrupt my own concentration by thinking I must be distracted due to his noise, indulging resentment towards his "interruption", and succumbing to similar attachments to conditioned phenomena.

If I avoid this for long enough, I land in a sort of plateau of concentration that feels great and is rather easy to maintain.

It's actually somewhat hard to get out of this state.

One reason this state is easy to maintain is that I clearly perceive any approaching defilement. It's like my mind has become clear like pure water, and I can just recognize defilements so easily: "that's aversion approaching... that's greed... that's lust...". And then I just balance out of it. The key thing is to just let go of these attachments.

Another interesting thing is that I noticed there are some forces in me actively working against being in this state, or making any progress in general. Like some sort of instinct or inclination to avoid letting go, and specifically the avoidance of deeply concentrated and mindful states.

It's like the "monkey mind" isn't just random and silly, but on the contrary represents some profound and steady force working against further enlightenment.

Anyway, just thought I would share, and certainly would love to read your comments.