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How do you summon your courage when everything seems hopeless? How do you gain the strength to keep fighting when all your efforts seem to be in vain? Learn from Harriet.

• Around 120 years ago, a young woman freed herself from slavery. However, when Harriet Tubman crossed into the free lands of Pennsylvania, she knew her own freedom wasn’t enough — she was compelled to help others attain their freedom.
• For the next 11 years, she crossed back into the hell she had escaped over and over again. She ultimately rescued around 70 enslaved people.
• Most of us in the modern world won’t endure conditions as horrific as Harriet and other enslaved people faced. Nonetheless, we face a set of challenges that are unprecedented in human history, from the decline of democracy to the existential threat of climate change.
• Whenever we feel dejected or lost by the weight of the difficulties we face, we can channel the strength of those who came before to meet what lies ahead. We can learn from Harriet and countless other brave souls who paved the way for our efforts today.

Read the full transcript here: https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-51-to-hell-and-back-again/

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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/

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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/

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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

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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/

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We humans are far less rational than we’d like to believe. Even very smart people make all kinds of bad decisions. Aristotle’s rules for deliberation still serve as a practical method to slow down, clarify thinking, and improve decision-making.

Aesop’s classic fable of the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs conveys an issue at the heart of human society: we can be really bad at decision-making. We often make decisions that satisfy a craving in the short term but at the expense of the long term.

Recognizing our tendency toward poor decision-making, Aristotle devised an approach over 2300 years ago to help make better decisions. Modern-day scholar Edith Hall presents his rules for deliberation, which offer us a systematic framework for making better decisions.

These rules include slowing down the decision-making process, ensuring that we incorporate the perspectives of everyone affected by the decision, considering the range of possible outcomes, and other insightful considerations.

Employing a systematic approach like this helps us to counter some of the biases and mental shortcuts that can lead us toward bad choices. With these methods, may you conserve your golden gooses for many years to come!

See full transcript here:
https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-46-aristotle-and-the-art-of-deliberation/

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No doubt this is unwelcome news, but your brain is riddled with biases that can lead to unclear thinking and poor decisions. Intentional, systematic decision-making processes can reduce their influence.

We are faced with countless decisions every day. To help us make sense of the world and make rapid decisions, our brains evolved a wide range of biases and mental shortcuts called heuristics.

Most of the time, these shortcuts serve us well. Other times, they can lead us to make some really dumb decisions. No one is immune to their effects, however smart or accomplished we might be.

Our biases operate at a speed faster than thought. Their stealth can cause us to be tricked in all manner of ways, such as failing to see our mistakes or being subtly influenced to spend more money.

While we can’t eliminate these biases – and we probably wouldn’t want to, anyway – we can reduce their potential negative impacts by using a systematic method for slowing down and making informed decisions.

Read the full transcript here: 
https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-45-avoiding-stupid-decisions

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The human capacity for reason sets us apart on the evolutionary stage. But our intuition also played a crucial role in our rise to the top. We can cultivate greater intuition through systematic learning and persistent exposure to high-quality information.

Hundreds of millions of years of animal evolution forged a crucial tool for survival — animal instinct. The power of instinct allows animals to respond instantly to threats.

Our species stood out not for our powerful jaws or lightning-fast speed, but due to our capacity for reason. However, the problem with reason is that it takes time to execute — a luxury that animals don’t have when facing threats to survival.

Humans evolved another capacity that played a crucial role in our rise to the top of the food chain. The uniquely human power of intuition blends the speed of instinct with the knowledge gained through reason.

We can cultivate our intuition through intentional and systematic efforts to consume high-quality information over a period of years. Highly attuned intuition can be a superpower, analyzing complex patterns and instantly generating profound insights into novel solutions to thorny problems.

Check out the full transcript here:
https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-44-instinct-reason-and-intuition/

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Even if the destination is clear, there are many roads to get there. Nobody knows the “perfect” path. We must decide the route based on our unique conditions and companions on the journey.

Every year, thousands of people from around the world travel to Spain to take the Camino de Santiago — the Way of St. James. While the destination is the same, the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, there are countless routes to get there.

Even with a map, nobody knows the “best” way to get to Santiago. Based on the hundreds of little decisions they make each day, everyone will have a vastly different Camino.

Many pilgrims on the Camino describe the experience as a metaphor for life. You never know who you’re going to meet, what setbacks you will experience, and what lessons you might learn along the way.

Some of the many insights we might gain from the Camino include walking with humility, being adaptable, and being willing to take a leap of faith. But you’ll never know what your experience will be until you set out on the journey.

Check out the full transcript for this episode here:
https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-43-many-roads-to-santiago 

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Our childhood fear of the dark never went away; it merely changed forms. Our irrational fear of the dark blinds us to the vital power of darkness. 

As children, we fear the dark because of what we think we see lurking in the shadows. This fear is perfectly reasonable and rational, since recognizing dangerous creatures can keep us alive.

As adults, culture and language embed an irrational fear of darkness in our collective thinking. Deeply ingrained metaphors brand darkness in all its forms as immoral, dangerous, and undesirable. These metaphors are particularly harmful for people of color, who endure persistent discrimination related to this branding of “darkness as bad.”

Taoism offers a more balanced perspective, recognizing darkness and light as inseparable parts of a whole. Light can’t exist without darkness; darkness can’t exist without light. 

Likewise, our lives would be unbearable without darkness or with an excess of light. Darkness brings creation, comfort, and a potential for growth – if we open our eyes to the dark.

Check out the full episode transcript here: https://projectindra.org/apotheosis-podcast/episode-42-darkness-in-a-new-light/