My very dear one,
I was very happy to receive your kind letter.

That is very important, what you discovered during retreat, discovering one’s own life, one’s own mind—that is the benefit of retreat. By doing retreat one can discover the mistakes in one’s mind and then they can be changed, that is how realizations come.

It is just like with a seed, having soil, water, and worms, then with all the conditions, slowly a stem comes out, and after some time then the flowers and fruit. The flowers and the fruit are like the discovery, the foundation is like the clearing of the ground before you plant crops.

Don't worry about the money that has been offered to you. It belongs to you and the important thing is when you give teachings to not have the motivation or expectation of money offerings, to not think about that, to not think like it is a business. It is very important to not think of money offerings at all. If the thought comes about money you should abandon it, kick it out, like in football, soccer, or cricket. When I say cricket I don't mean you have to run and catch the thought, don't misunderstand me. You shouldn't kick the thought out and then run after it and catch it.

I saw on TV a man run so far to catch a ball that he went over the wall and his head hit the ground. So, this tells you that instead of doing meditation I have been watching TV. I am giving you this information because you didn't have TV in your retreat, except the TV in your mind, that was showing karma and many things. So, if that thought enters then it will be like doing business.

You can use the money to build a retreat cabin, or for traveling to teachings. You can do whatever you want with the money. Or you can use it to eat chocolate ice cream. You can eat half and leave the other half for another person... I'm just teasing. Or you can divide the chocolate ice cream into four, so one is for me, one for your friend, one for your enemy, and the fourth is for you.

It is extremely good to do retreat again and again. The fact that you have the desire to do long retreat means usually that what you did is effective. If your mind gets bored or isn’t interested in doing long retreat then it means the retreat hasn't been very good.

We can discuss what to do later. For now, travel around giving teachings for a while, then we can discuss again. Also, sometimes the answer might come out in your heart.

With much love and prayers...