What a mother or father or other relatives cannot do, the well-directed mind can do even better.

The luminous pair to the previous verse. Mātā pitā — mother, father: the figures of greatest human love, of most selfless care. What they can give — protection, sustenance, love, guidance — is immense. And yet, the well-directed mind can do seyyaso — even more, even better.

Sammāpaṇihitaṃ — well-directed, well-oriented: sammā is the same root as in the Noble Eightfold Path. The mind oriented toward right understanding, toward benevolence, toward genuine practice, becomes the greatest friend a being can have.

The teaching is that the ultimate source of wellbeing is not in external conditions, however favorable, but in the orientation of the mind. Even mother’s love cannot protect from consequences of a badly oriented mind; even the most adverse circumstance cannot destroy the peace of a well-cultivated mind.

This verse and the previous frame contemplative practice in its real dimension: not a spiritual luxury but the most powerful wellbeing tool that exists. The well-oriented mind is the best gift we can give ourselves and the world.