Someone asked: how can we keep the mind established in the wholesome as much as possible at every moment, when we must work amid people or an atmosphere that's genuinely toxic and unavoidable? How should we hold the mind and train mindfulness so it doesn't sink along with the environment, while preserving as much clarity in the wholesome as possible?

Environment and Good Company Are Key Factors, But Not the Only Ones

Pra Ajarn explained that a life able to remain established in the wholesome relies on environment and good company as essential factors. When these two aren't available, it becomes genuinely difficult, because the unwholesome uses environment and people to provoke us. He gave an example: even within a temple itself, there was once a monk suffering from an extremely heavy karmic burden, his condition bordering on losing his mind entirely. He came every day asking for help in treatment, and gradually improved, bit by bit. But the unwholesome kept coming to disturb him — in the middle of a perfectly normal conversation, he'd suddenly ask the very same question again, as if he'd never heard the explanation before. This is the nature of the unwholesome provoking from within.

When the Environment Isn't Suitable, Rely on the Ten Perfections

When the environment doesn't support the wholesome, we must rely on the perfections (pāramī) — giving, morality, renunciation, wisdom, effort, patience, truthfulness, resolution, loving-kindness, and equanimity. All of these are what we must keep turning clockwise, so the stream of merit keeps flowing that direction — never let it turn the other way. If we can't invoke the perfections on our own, we need to check ourselves; while in that environment, we invoke each perfection as a point of focus. Given the chance, let morality be established in virtue, offering safety to those around us, undisturbed by delight or aversion toward sensual objects. Next comes wisdom, which sustains us in the wholesome, separating us from the unwholesome. Effort is the diligence to remain in the wholesome; patience is endurance against the claims the unwholesome makes; truthfulness is honesty, sincerity, and purity of heart; resolution is setting our aim on virtue, with the Triple Gem and nibbana as our goal, filling the mind with sincere love and goodwill. Equanimity, meanwhile, keeps the mind neutral, unmoved by delight or aversion. We invoke each of these in turn, to keep the stream turning the right way, and then continue with our work.

The Perfections Are Automatic Tools — Usable Even Unseen

In cases where the environment isn't suitable, invoking each perfection as our own refined toolkit can help, because these function as automatic tools that we simply need to consciously invoke to use. A blind person can still use a refrigerator or a phone without ever seeing it — the device exists and works regardless of whether it's seen. It's the same within us: even without reaching the Dhamma Eye, which few ever attain, these refined tools already exist within us and can be used without being seen. We need only learn and practice using them, and gradually we'll come to see how remarkable they truly are.