If You Can't Let It Go, Work It Through

Many of us, overwhelmed with stress, intense emotion, and knee-jerk reactions, long for the calm and unruffled detachment of spiritual leaders. We want to know their secret to rising above our human mistakes, to “just letting it go.” But it’s not that easy.

Mark Pelter left life as a Buddhist monk after 12 years, realizing he couldn’t let go of his reactive cycles of anger and fear. While continuing his own inner work, he began teaching and counseling others, and discovered the ancient Buddhist mind training practice known as lojong.

Combining the 59 slogans of lojong with meditation and journaling prompts, Pelter built a daily practice that helped his students move beyond the common platitude to “just let it go” and truly begin to work through their emotional obstacles. This guide to profound lovingkindness, both for ourselves and others, became If You Can’t Let It Go, Work It Through.

If You Can’t Let It Go, Work It Through isn’t just a Buddhist primer or another daily meditation journal, but a gentle investigation into our deeply conditioned patterns and how we might be liberated from them. In our volatile and uncertain world, Pelter offers readers a way to live with more spaciousness, generosity, and compassion.