Jesus said, "The kingdom [or reign] of the father is like a certain woman. She took a little leaven, concealed it in some dough, and made it into large loaves. Let him who has ears hear." (Gospel of Thomas, 96)
He [Jesus] spoke to them with another analogy. "The kingdom [or reign] of the skies [or heavens] is like yeast that a woman took and hid in three sata [Greek, about 3 gallons] of flour, and waited until the whole lump of dough was risen with the yeast." (Gospel of Matthew 13.33)
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Rick Ruben, in The Creative Act: A Way of Being, tells the following wisdom story -
An old man in Calcutta would walk to get water from a well every day. He’d carry a clay pot and lower it by hand slowly, all the way down, careful not to let it hit the sides of the well and break.
Once it was full, he’d raise the pot slowly and carefully again. It was a focused, time-consuming act.
One day, a traveler noticed the old man engaged in this difficult task. More experienced with mechanics, he showed the old man how to use a pulley system.
“This will allow the pot to go straight down quickly,” the traveler explained, “then fill with water and come back up, without hitting the sides. It’s much easier and the pot will be just as full with much less work.”
The old man looked at him and said, “I think I’m going to keep doing it the way I always have. I really have to think about each movement and there’s a great deal of care that goes into doing it right. I’d imagine if I were to use the pulley, it would become easy and I might even start thinking about something else while doing it. If I put so little care and time into it, what might the water taste like? It couldn’t possibly taste as good.”
Does life taste as well when we hurry along seeing how quickly we can do this or that? Can we enjoy life driven by productivity and efficiency? Are you how much you can get done? Nature models a wiser way. If only we would listen! Yet, little around us encourages us to listen. We are encouraged to measure ourselves by how much and how quickly. We need mindfulness. I prefer heartfulness or wholeheartedness or presence. Whatever... we need it.
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When baking bread, one trusts the yeast. They do not look solicitously over it and are not anxious about the yeast not working. Yeast, by nature, permeates the flour and expands it. You do not need to help the yeast. You have done your part - placed it in an environment conducive for it to work.
The image of yeast implies two things. First, a silent working. Hence, the yeast does not call attention to itself or pronounce how it is working. Second, it works slowly.
Silently. This can be a challenge for us in our spiritual evolution. Spirit works quietly. Spirit does not call attention to itself. In a noisy world, Grace appears to hide in quietness. Our role is to continue our practice and participate, often without any awareness of how Life is transforming us. So, do not keep inspecting yourself for such growth. That is an unhealthy attachment. Be content walking along without knowing where you are or where you are going: keep going. What is important is wholehearted fidelity to the step you are now taking. Buddhism refers to this as aimlessness. It is not our business to know what Spirit is doing or how. I am sure Spirit can inform you of some of that if needed.
Slowly. This, too, can be a challenge, especially in instant-satisfaction, prompt-delivery, and entertainment-at-the-fingertips culture. Speed is central to modernity. Now, we drive through a drive-through and get a meal that took 40 minutes of waiting when I was a small boy in the '60s. Again, your role is to keep engaging the Way. And you cannot rush this growth anyway. If you try, that will not work. Such a push counters spiritual development.
There is a secret wisdom in the slowness of spiritual development, as in all ripening. When growing, for example, in walking, incremental maturation allows the joining of prior and emerging skills. Prior skills are integrated, not lost. Thus, we learn to crawl before standing and standing before walking and walking before running, while the crawling is in the running. You cannot leap from being a spiritual acorn to a spiritual oak.
Hence, we go back to trust. Why would you put yeast in flour if you do not trust yeast? Well, one reason might be to learn to trust. Our trust in the process, in the silence and slowness, grows. As we evolve, we trust more the power inherent in the path itself. We become more content with where we have grown rather than apprehensive about where we might grow.
Jesus says two things to us. He says, "You will not know how the path is working for you. Keep walking, anyway." He says, "You will often not see any growth at all, keep cultivating yourself, anyway."
We learn to relax with the process. We learn the joy of the path by engaging it in confidence in its wisdom. We see how it has worked in the past for others before us, and that inspires us. This confidence grows when looking back over time and seeing the path is working for our good, as it did for them. We are becoming more of the persons we are inherently. We are healing, so we are suffering less. We are more joyful, loving, and patient. We are changing, even if slowly, and even if sometimes we feel we are relapsing. This development is not a straight line, after all. We are often led to work through suffering left behind, finding healing for wounding long buried in the subconscious.
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Last, a word about feelings. While feelings can easily mislead, they are indicators of spiritual growth. We practice discernment regarding feelings, listening closely to what is registering in the body. As we grow spiritually, our emotional selves shift. However, one needs to be aware negative feelings can heighten as one grows, and repressed or unhealed residue arises. We can welcome these emotions. We can befriend them. They are not present to hurt us, so they are not the foes of our well-being. They are compost for our heart garden.
After almost 30 years of meditation and living a contemplative life, I have moments when I feel overwhelmed with negative feelings. I have learned, after much resistance, the truth of what Melody Beattie writes, in her Journey to the Heart, "[L]oss cannot be negotiated." And pain is always linked with a sense of loss or fear of loss. In the simple welcome is healing. Also, some emotional pain may never fully heal, which is okay. When hurting, be kind to yourself. Be a safe space for yourself to feel what you feel. Grace is working like leaven, even amid loss and pain. Walk gently. Walk in kindness to yourself. And, remember, you never walk alone... we are all walking together.
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*(C) Brian K. Wilcox, 2024. Permission is given to use photographs and writings with credit given to the copyright owner.
*Brian's book is An Ache for Union: Poems on Oneness with God through Love. The book is a collection of poems Brian wrote based on wisdom traditions, predominantly Christian, Buddhist, and Sufi, with extensive notes on the poetry's teachings and imagery.
*Reading from the Gospel of Matthew derives from Sarah Ruden. The Gospels: A New Translation.
*Reading from the Gospel of Thomas is from Abbot George Burke (Swami Nirmalananda Giri). The Gospel of Thomas for Awakening. Translation of saying by Thomas Lambdin.
