Someone observed: people who take a two-week vacation abroad often come back energized, working harder than before, as if they'd recharged their battery. Meanwhile, some who go on retreat or ordain temporarily come back seeming sluggish, no longer eager to engage with the present world the way they used to. Why does this happen?

Back when Pra Ajarn still worked a regular job, he noticed the same thing. Given a free weekend, whether one chose to go relax or go to the temple, the outcome was similar: coming back refreshed, feeling full of merit, with renewed energy to keep working. This is because going to relax is really the same kind of state — one of relaxation and ease. Going to the temple, though it requires some effort and endurance, brings, once the activity is done, a fullness born of the purity of merit — a joy, a contentment, a lightness of heart — giving similar energy for work afterward. Even though a vacation spends merit, it still brings about a state of relaxation and ease, which is itself a wholesome state, and so it too can draw in pure energy.

As for those who come back from a retreat with problems, it may seem odd, since people tend to assume that Dhamma practice must always be good for you. But in truth, it depends on which of the three natures a person is abiding with at the time — not everyone who practices gets a good result. A good result comes only from abiding in the correct system; abiding in an incorrect system will certainly not yield a good result, because every system has its own goal. Once it takes hold of someone, it draws in energy that serves its own nature's purpose, driving its system toward its own goal, seeking to increase its own share — and so it looks for opportunities to guide the person, no matter what activity they happen to be engaged in.