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

We make hundreds of decisions each day. Making the right decision depends on the possible outcomes. One helpful approach is to ask ourselves, “Will this action create more suffering or less?”

Some of the decisions we make every day are easy enough: what to eat, what free-time activities to pursue, or when to make a dentist appointment. Other decisions have a bigger impact and require more thought.

A Buddhist teaching called the Eightfold Path offers a practical approach to improving the outcomes of our decisions. Consisting of eight non-sequential steps, this path encourages us to make choices that reduce suffering.

The step called “right view” encourages us to consider that many of our actions – and thoughts – create needless suffering. In contrast, other actions promote well-being for ourselves and others. We would be wise to choose the latter.

The eight steps work closely together, cultivating the mental discipline to think more clearly. This clarity gives us a more accurate perception of our situation. Which in turn strengthens our capacity to make beneficial decisions.

Check out the full transcript here:
https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-47-right-view-right-decision/