remembering our true self

Once upon a time, an ancient statue of the Buddha was covered with plaster and decorated with paint and shiny colored glass. The statue wasn’t necessarily beautiful, but it was a strong heavy piece that had survived hundreds of years. When the statue was moved to a different temple in Thailand in 1955, it was damaged, chipping some of the thick coating off and allowing a luminous gold surface underneath to be seen. Upon further evaluation and after carefully peeling back all the thick layers of plaster, it was discovered that the statue was made of solid gold!

The statue is believed to have been created approximately sometime during the Sukothai Dynasty (13-14 centuries). Monks and scholars believe that the statue was covered in plaster in order to protect it through the years, against thieves, and the Burmese invaders, who were notorious for looting and melting the gold of the nations they conquered. You can visit the Golden Buddha, or the Pra Buddha Mahasuwan Patimakon, which rests at the Wat Traimit Temple, in Bangkok, Thailand.

Much like the beautiful golden Buddha statue, we also cover our innate purity and beauty with thick layers, hardening our exteriors so we may get through difficult times. The suffering that we feel in life comes from the false identification with our outer shell, when we believe the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, the stories that others tell about us, and we forget our true luminous golden nature of loving awareness. In our core, we are all made up the same loving awareness, but life is difficult and we forget that we already have so much value. Yoga helps us peel back the layers of life’s armor, so we may come back home to our true selves and remember that we already had everything we needed all along. The more we practice, the more we realize how beautiful and precious we really are, and once we realize our true value it becomes easier to recognize the beauty and value of everyone around us.

#healingthroughyoga #goldenbuddha #yogainspiration #PraBuddhaMahasuwanPatimakon