Excerpts from Supreme Master Ching Hai’s lecture:

I have told you to be successful in the world, but not at the cost of the spiritual progress. Understand? Because after we leave this world, we have nothing. We cannot bring anything with us. So if we cannot balance our life between spiritual and material gain, we have to quit one or another. So the choice is yours. Anytime we should choose the spiritual progress before the material gain, of course. But I could not force you to make one choice or the other. I just tell you the consequences. Money and fame these is very, very strong, powerful tool that the Maya use to nip us from our spiritual aspiration. So be careful.

And the less they meditate, the more they are involved in the worldly activities. And the more they are involved in worldly activities, the less they can feel inclined to meditate. And so, you know, the vicious circle going, going, and then they leave all together. And now completely successful in the world. Used up all their energy and the merit earned from the last period of meditation in the worldly game.

Always there are higher levels. There is no end, there is no roof to our attainment. Like, OK, hit the roof and finished. It's not. There is always more happiness, more bliss waiting for us at every step of the way, at every level of consciousness. So we always have to continue. That's what is worth living for. Otherwise if we live another hundred years, and then what?