The state of a man’s mind for relative peace or the absence of it is, invariably, the function of his sense of perception and attitude towards life’s experiences. This is often as influenced by the five basic problems of mankind which are: loneliness, anger, fear or anxiety, disease and death. These basic problems it would be observed, are global reaching beyond race and geographical boundaries.

Man must understand that these problems will always beset him, hence he should condition his mind to accepting life as it comes, by transcending or going beyond worry or anger as of necessity. Therefore, peace of mind means the ability to maintain stability and steadiness of mind, irrespective of the problems of life.

Albert Camus, in ‘The Myth of Sisphus’, describes man’s sojourn in this prison called earth as an irredeemable exile because he is deprived of the memories of a lost homeland as much as he lacks hope of a promised land to come. Thus, the prison called earth (an irredeemable exile) is full of the basic problems of mankind already identified above, hence man will only find Peace of Mind (the lost homeland) and experience hope of a promised land to come (or happiness) only if he learns the virtues of contentment, humility, patience, forgiveness or tolerance and detachment from materialism, positive values which go a long way in enhancing peace of mind.

Otherwise, the negative perversions of greed, lust, vanity, anger, and undue attachment to materialism stir insecurity, tension and worries, rather than the experience of harmony and happiness, the attributes of peace of mind which come with the practice of contentment and the other aforementioned positive values that are rightly imbibed and expressed in spite of the odds of life. When this is done one gains stability of mind and a balance of health and a general feelings of well being no matter what the outer conditions or circumstances of life may be.

The moment peace of mind is achieved, the person stops complaining, and will shun backbiting or gossip because they are absolutely satisfied with their state of affairs, since they now have a fundamental understanding of the workings of life, knowing that they have to, as much as possible, harmonise their personal will with the divine will of God. This happens because they have discovered that they are primarily responsible for whatever happens in their lives. When this attitude is adopted they will gain a balance that surpasses the various manifestations that directly emanate from one’s actions. This is more so as man subsists under a condition of permanent flux or change.

Thus, further adopting a sense of indifference or more correctly, detachment to the outcomes or end results of our outer activities or efforts, with deep belief and faith in God (under total surrender to His will) would give us peace of mind.