It often takes a crisis to see what a life's shape has been, to show what really matters. For Peter Conradi, writer, academic, acclaimed biographer of Iris Murdoch, the moment came in 1982. This is his account of the new life-journey he embarked on back then. It is a self-help book for cynics, in which it becomes clear that "going Buddhist" is neither a quick fix, nor a one-shot deal. Conradi explains the point of a religion relevant to Westerners, perishing from the knowingness and nihilism of the age.