Someone asked: Luang Phor once gave the teaching, "Whatever is lost, let it be lost -- just don't lose the peace of your mind." But in actual practice, how do we hold onto that peace, especially when something happens that shakes us?

Whatever Is Lost, Let It Be Lost -- Just Don't Lose the Peace of Your Mind Whatever we're going through, hold onto the peace of your mind. Life is never perfectly smooth -- it rises and falls like mountains in a wild forest, some peaks high, some low. So when we run into life's obstacles, don't despair, don't lose heart, don't give up. Whatever is lost, let it be lost -- just don't lose the peace of your mind, and don't lose the willpower to keep fighting through the obstacle. Whenever we feel discouraged, fight on with wisdom and with a spirit held high.

Use a Repeated Word as a Tool to Call Forth the Quality of Calm We were born together with countless tools -- both physical and spiritual. Within us are the spheres of morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and knowledge-and-vision of liberation, all ready to be used. Think of sweetness: sugar is sweet, honey is sweet, stevia is sweet -- many different things can give us the same sweetness. In the same way, we need to learn and understand so that we have the wisdom to choose the right tool to solve a problem.

Whenever the mind is unsettled, simply repeat the word "calm... calm... calm... still... calm and still... calm and still" again and again. The wholesome quality named "calm" will arise in the mind -- even if we can't see it happening -- because a quality like this can only arise in the mind, nowhere else. Once it arises, it will express its own nature on its own, the same way sugar dissolved in water makes the water sweet on its own. We only need to know that this quality brings calm, and then apply it to our own mind.

A quality called up this way typically lasts only briefly -- some 15 to 30 seconds before it fades -- so we repeat it again, and the sphere of calm arises once more, settling the inner tremor and confusion on its own. If we're feeling heated with anger, repeat "cool... cool... cool" instead, and the mind will gradually cool. If we feel suffocated or tight, repeat "clear and open, clear and open" -- or simply look up at the sky -- and we can draw that same quality of openness from the natural world around us.

Absorb Good Energy from Your Surroundings Everything around us can hold and carry good qualities, and we can absorb that good energy -- the same way that keeping company with good friends lets us pick up the quality of their good inner states. Even certain objects can hold and carry a good "wave." When a wholesome quality arises in the mind, it doesn't just express its own nature -- it also draws in pure energy, merit, flowing in at the same time. That pure energy dissolves the defiled energy pressing on our environment, body, and mind, and as it does, our suffering eases too.

The Root of Worry and Fear Is an Unwholesome Voice Guiding Us Someone then asked: what if worry comes paired with fear -- most people worry about this or that, default to negative thinking, and then fear that the bad thing will actually happen. What's the advice?

Human beings are defeated by exactly two things: suffering and fear -- both driven from behind the scenes by the unwholesome side. It presses and squeezes, then repeats the same worry back to us again and again, blowing a small fear up into something much bigger. We're being steered without realizing it, believing the thoughts are entirely our own, when really we're being guided to dwell only on what might go wrong. A small matter becomes a big one.

If the wholesome side is present instead, it comforts and reassures us, turning our attention to good things, building faith, generating a wholesome wave that draws in pure energy to dissolve the defilement -- and pointing out that any bad outcome always has a cause rooted in defilement; clear the defilement, and the cause can't take hold. So there's no need to panic or fear, because fear itself is a form of defilement that draws in more unwholesome energy, making things spiral until they're beyond control. Left unchecked, worry becomes fear, fear becomes panic, and the situation slips entirely out of our hands. All of this comes from the unwholesome side forcing thoughts on us that we mistake for our own -- the more we dwell on them, the more panicked and anxious we become, to the point it can develop into depression.