Apotheosis
Reach your peak.
The Apotheosis podcast shares insights, reflections, and practices from the world’s great traditions to help leaders solve complex problems — biweekly wisdom for impact leaders.
(In case you fire up an episode and hear me talking about the Changemakers' Field Guide, don't be alarmed, you're still in the right place. Did a bit of rebranding a little while back.)
Apotheosis
The muddy diamond
A diamond covered in mud doesn’t lose any value. Wash off the layers of mud, and you easily recognize it as a treasure. Likewise, if we purify our mind of delusions, we can see our innate wisdom.
One of the fundamental teachings of Buddhism is that all beings possess innate wisdom and purity – we all have the seeds of enlightenment. Yeah, this concept is a tough one to wrap our heads around. The Buddha taught that we don’t recognize our inner purity because of the Three Poisons: ignorance, attachment, and aversion. Ignorance leads us to believe external things can bring us happiness or cause our suffering. This delusion leads us to grasp tightly onto things we desire and forcefully push away things we dislike.
Like washing mud off of a diamond, we can train the mind to see through these delusions. Doing so can give us a glimpse of our innate wisdom and purity.
Access the full transcript of this episode here:
https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-39-the-muddy-diamond/