Excerpts from Supreme Master Ching Hai’s lecture:

Will power is very important to getting ahead in any field, and if you belittle yourself by giving in to anything, by giving up your high standards in exchange for some physical comfort when you can do otherwise, then you just harm yourself, and that's what I call detrimental.

We want to keep ourselves absolutely in control, like you control your situation. If you control what you eat, you eat what you want and not what is forced upon you by any circumstances, then you keep your own power. That's it. And nothing can shake you then because you do what you want, under any circumstances. That's what it is.

If we can keep anything, it should be to keep our level of consciousness, keep our standards; otherwise, you can do anything you want. The precepts and the rules are not for you to keep; actually they are for you to realize whether you are up to that standard or not. And if you give up you'll sink down and that's already detrimental. What else can you ask? Because you're lowering your standards already.