A method drives a panel and a plasma display unit, wherein one field includes a plurality of subfields, each having an addressing period for producing an address discharge selectively in the discharge cells, and a sustaining period for producing a sustain discharge by applying a number of sustaining pulses corresponding to a weight of brightness in a discharge cell where the address discharge has been produced. Additionally, a sustaining pulse generator circuit includes a power recovery section for controlling the rising or the falling of the sustaining pulse by producing resonance between an inter-electrode capacitance of a display electrode pair and an inductor, and a clamping section for clamping a voltage of the sustaining pulse at a predetermined potential, wherein the power recovery section is used to set twice a time of the rising of the sustaining pulse to be equal to or longer than a duration of the sustaining pulse.