If someone tries to tell you that there is some sort of spiritual attainment that can only be achieved under special circumstances or conditions – celibacy, withdrawing from life, remaining single, or any other such nonsense – and that stepping out from under those conditions will fracture the attainment, then it is no attainment at all. Rather it is a precious little state of mind for fragile souls who need ego support and to feel special.

Anything that’s real, and kind of spiritual gift or progress, will play on the street the same way it does in the monastery – or else it’s no gift at all. If some aspect of daily like causes the “gift” to fail, then it was never a gift at all.