to K....I would like to tell you a story

In a large temple of Thailand's ancient capital, Sukotai, there once stood an enormous and ancient clay Buddha. Though not the most handsome or refined work of Thai Buddhist art, it had been cared for over a period of five hundred years and become revered for its sheer longevity. Violent storms, changes in government and invading armies had come and gone, but the Buddha endured.
At one point, however, the monks who tended to temple noticed that the statue had begun to crack and would soon be in need of repair and repainting. After a stretch of particularly hot, dry weather, one of the cracks became so wide that a curious monk took a flashlight and peered inside. What shone back at him was a flash of brilliant gold. Inside the plain old statue, the temple residents discovered one of the larges and most luminous gold images of Buddha ever created in Southeast Asia. Now uncovered, the golden Buddha draws throngs of pilgrims form all over Thailand.
The monks believe that this shinning work of art had been covered in plaster and clay to protect it during times of conflict and unrest. In much the same way, each of us had encountered threatening situations that lead us to cover over our innate nobility. Just the people of Sukotai had forgotten about the golden Buddha, we too have forgotten our essential nature. Much of the time we operate from the protective layer.
from Jack Kornfied's book "the wise heart".