Few activities create more anxiety than thinking about the future. However, when we let go of the need for certainty, we prepare our minds for clarity and creativity to bloom.

Whenever we’re faced with a hard problem or a major decision, we often find ourselves gripped with anxiety. Our minds churn with visions of the many ways things might go wrong.

However, we can take comfort in the fact that nobody knows what's going to happen. While uncertainty often makes us uncomfortable, it also equals possibility.

When we let go of our need to have everything all figured out, we can open the door to new ways of thinking and being.

The Buddhist concept of “store consciousness” offers a helpful approach to do this. When you have a problem, rather than ruminate endlessly, you can rest in the wisdom of “not-knowing” and allow insight to arise organically.

Listen to the full transcript here:
https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-50-i-dont-know-and-thats-ok/

We fill our homes with too much stuff, our calendars with too many activities, and our minds with too much mental chatter. When we practice saying no and letting go, we make more space for the things that truly deliver value in our lives.

If you’ve ever been in the home of an extreme hoarder, you will recognize how useless a room becomes from an excess of stuff. With junk piled on every surface from floor to ceiling, you have to carve a path just to walk across the room.

When we lack space, the utility of emptiness becomes clear. Over 2000 years ago, the Tao Te Jing pointed out that form and space work together to make things useful.

We can experience this with material things in our lives, like rooms or the surface of our desks, or more intangible things like our calendars or our minds. Too much stuff filling every corner diminishes the utility of these things.

To make space, we must practice the challenging but liberating art of saying no and letting go. Doing so allows us to make the best use of the forms and spaces in our lives.

Check out the full transcript here:
https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-49-i-need-some-space/

We have greater access to information than ever, but not all is reliable. Who should we trust? The Buddha’s ten criteria for countering misinformation can help.

We live in an age in which actual misinformation farms exist. However, the problem of untrustworthy information is not new. The difficulty of sorting out signal from noise goes back at least 2,500 years to the Buddha’s time.

Frustrated and confused by the conflicting messages they received from wandering spiritual teachers, a group of residents approached the Buddha for advice.

He gave a sermon known today as the Kalama Sutta, in which he offered ten criteria to assess the quality of information. He encouraged people not to accept a message simply because of repeated hearing, tradition, or even because they respected the monk, among other reasons.

His advice stands the test of time. In essence, we should maintain a healthy skepticism. We should pause, doubt, and investigate everything we hear with an open mind.

Check out the full transcript here:
https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-48-the-buddhas-antidote-for-misinformation