It is recorded somewhere that the Buddha taught about Seven Suitable Conditions. In specific he was talking about enlightenment, but in general they are basically required for good practice in the development of wisdom. There is suitable friendship, people that you live with, people that you talk with. There is suitable conversation, the actual speech you have with others. There is suitable home or your abode, where you actually live, where you put your head down to sleep. There is suitable "working place". So you have got your home where you live, and the place where you work, some of you here are doing it in the same spot. But for most people they have a home, also they have a working place, but not just a working place also where you go shopping, where you go for exercise and so on; everything outside to home life. That needs to be suitable. There is suitable food. There is suitable climate and there is suitable posture. I think I mentioned posture a couple days ago.
The Buddha stressed these seven as being suitable conditions. When you look at the seven, though, you can actually do without five of them, if you have the other two. And the other two have to be specific. They have to be suitable friendship and suitable conversation. For me, personally, if I eat a lot of chilies in the food, it's going to be upsetting to my stomach, so for me suitable food would not include a lot of chilies. But if I've got a good teacher who is really emphasizing to me "Don't worry about that taste, just to acknowledge heat as heat. Acknowledge coughing as coughing or tears watering, etc." If I've got a teacher who was encouraging me in that way, it's okay, I'll handle those chilies. Yeah, if I've got a really good teacher, if I know somebody who is a really good teacher, living in Alaska, I'll go. I'll go and visit them. If they are really good, I'll go back again, I may stay with them for a while. I am not going to like the climate. It's not suitable for me in that sense. But I'll go there if I've got a suitable teacher, suitable conversation and so on. So you can see how the other 5, home, the abode and everything, those five can actually not be so important, if we have the first two, the first two I mentioned, suitable friendship and suitable conversation. Though, of course, it makes everything easier if all seven are suitable, we can just flow much easier.
Second part of the question, is this referring to retreat conditions or to living conditions in general. As to how Rosemary and I explain it, it is really living conditions in general. You have got to be careful when you go back to the West as to where is your home, who are your friends, what is your work, where do you go shopping, what do you do for exercise and so-called "enjoyment" and so on. You need to be careful about these things. Especially, as I said, who are your friends and what are you talking about?