There was once a Buddhist monastery in southeast Asia that was home to a giant golden statue of the Buddha. The Monks of this temple loved their statue very dearly; however their country was facing an invasion by a hostile neighboring army. The monks knew that should the invading army take the temple, their golden Buddha would surely be harmed, likely melted down and sold to fund the invader’s war effort.

To protect their Golden Buddha, the monks hid it by caking the Buddha in layers and layers of protective clay, mud, and dirt, making it appear to be nothing more than a dirty clay statue. Their plan worked! The statue of the Golden Buddha was protected with none the wiser.  But as the invading army overtook the temple, all the monks of the temple were murdered, and the secret of the Golden Buddha was lost to time. It was only many years later during a particularly hot, dry, and inhospitable summer that the clay Buddha’s outer shell unexpectedly began to crack. It was then and only then that the secret of the Golden Buddha was revealed. Peering into these cracks, the monks of the monastery had rediscovered the Golden Buddha within! It is now recognized as the second largest golden statue of the Buddha in southeast Asia and regarded as a site of pilgrimage.

We all have a Golden Buddha within ourselves. In Buddhist philosophy, all living beings are born with an innate and natural inner goodness and buddha nature to them. However, as individuals who have suffered from addiction, we often cake on layer after layer of protective clay to hide our Golden Buddha nature from the outside world. We hide it to protect ourselves at first, but in time we may forget it still exists within us.

Much of walking a Buddhist-inspired path of recovery involves rediscovering this inner goodness: our Golden Buddha within. Gradually, as we work our way through The Practice of Recovery Dharma, we remove layer after layer of this protective exterior clay.

We invite you to take this journey of self-exploration and healing. Rediscover the Golden Buddha within yourself. Rediscover your true nature.