Question:
I sit down on my room with the hope to meditate all day but end up wasting 2-3 hours doing unnecessary activities and seeking entertainment. The mind keeps trying to distract me and end up succeeding if it tries hard enough. You seem to have gone through this process since you're liberated, so what advice can you give me on this?
Response:
The hope of meditating all day is perhaps too large. It clearly does not work for you, as you have discovered, which simply means you have to change your hope. Either you enjoy your entertainment without feeling guilty, or you say "I will just sit and do nothing for ten minutes, no matter what happens, or what I feel like doing or watching. I'm just going to sit here. My mind can create whatever it wants. It can even create hell. I'm not moving."
Then, ten minutes might evolve into eleven, twelve, even twenty. Set the timer for ten mins, and don't move. Leave your devices where they are. Also leave your resistances to anything at all. Give yourself permission, at least for ten minutes, to no longer resist anything. The urge to open the laptop can be there without your resistance. It will actually have less power over you if you offer no resistance to it.
Try that and let me know how it goes.
Many thanks,
Adam