Kamalashila identifies five characteristics for a “conducive environment,” such an environment being a prerequisite to meditation but also to daily life and the ideal physical setting for solitaries. (The list is easily updated by identifying evil beings in 2. as bad company and neighbors.)
- provides easy access to food and clothes,
- is free of evil beings and enemies,
- is free from disease,
- contains good people who maintain moral ethics and who share similar views, and
- is visited by few people in the daytime and with little noise at night.