Towards the end of lockdown I had run out of bread but not wanting to make a special trip to the shops just for that.

I’ve made bread in the past and had some old (2015!)  wholemeal bread flour and what looked like a good recipe… so I started.

I had read that a stage which I had always completed before was unnecessary, so instead of initially adding the yeast to water and sugar, I added it directly into the flour.

The recipe was also a little different, it required a couple of stages for rising as an alternative to a lot of kneading.

I was quite taken by this idea, letting it do its own thing without much effort from me was appealing, but by three in the afternoon despite ‘knocking back’ twice something which did not seem to have risen much…  hopes that I hadn’t been completely wasting my time were dashed, it was clear that any rising was imaginary.

Most likely the yeast was inactive, being too old. I would have discovered this if I had used the normal method… and also if I hadn’t been convinced that the yeast’s expiry date was printed on the lid of the tin.. which I had thrown out because it had been eaten by the mouse  with whom I shared a couple of months of lockdown…but that’s another story.

Something now made me look again the tin of yeast and I found that the date was in fact marked on it’s bottom… it was ten years out of date!

So, unwilling to waste the ingredients, what to do with two non-risen loaves?

Answer number one – make a load of crackers!
Rejected on two counts:  two loaves would make a lot more crackers than I would eat in a month of Sundays and also my teeth are friable and likely to crack before the cracker.

Answer number two – use a packet of yeast mixed with water and sugar and, when the sugar and yeast have reacted together, try to incorporate that liquid into the, by now rather hardened and dense – plasticene-like, loaves of dough.

I thought this might work after fashion…but was a long way from the recipe plan.  It took some time to incorporate the liquid, a gentle touch was  required… not making Play-Doh!… but eventually it seemed to be fairly well incorporated.  Original recipe now cast aside I couldn’t be bothered with more than one rise before I cooked them.

Yet they were really good. Some areas you could see were a bit more dense where I hadn’t been able to incorporate the liquid equally throughout… however it was definitely bread… not too dense and it tasted good.

What’s this got to do with the Dharma?

Well, I’m stretching a metaphor here! but the dharma teachings are like the yeast in sugared water… and we  have come to feel that we are like the dough…something a bit heavy… with the imagined solidity of all our weighty thoughts.

Without the dharma yeast to lighten and make the true potential clear the alternatives could be off-the-pace stodginess, or  hard-baked (+) crackers!

Yeast on its own would have been impossible to incorporate evenly, into the dense and somewhat hardened dough…so if any reaction did take place it would be incredibly slow and patchy. But mixed with sugar and water it was possible.

Fortunately, unlike yeast, the truth/wisdom does not go out of date! However the teachings need to  be brought to life in relation to the current time and situation…and to be expressed in a way which can be  received and digested – this is compassion i.e. the sugar and water.

Incorporating these dharma teachings with a persistent yet gentle touch, massaging them into to our heavy sense of selves… gradually we soften, and feel lighter. We become less dense and much more digestible, easier to be at ease…both with ourselves and with others… more sane, not crackers!

And no matter how hard or intractable we feel ourselves or our situation to be… gently applying…softening, relaxing – tensions releasing.  Realising and coming into realignment  with the Dharma, as the truth of ourselves, can’t help but bring about changes for the good.This lightening up…it sounds scrumptious, and healthier than cloud bread!

…and as the emptiness of the old flour, the dusty stuff we cling to…is perceived as such…fresh ingredients come to hand…

Recipes are available on-line also masterclasses!.. but is anyone the master of the mind? : )… see below

5th Sept, this Saturday, as mentioned under events here and on the Simplybeing.co.uk website.

also this Sunday, 6th Sept, Dissolving The Enemies Of Love – Talk – Sunday, 09/06
10:00 – 17:30 (London Time) details as above.