The Leaven of Gratitude

The Leaven of Gratitude

Jesus said,

The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

The word leaven as a metaphor has come to mean something that pervades the whole of a thing and transforms it from raw form or causes it to rise, even as leaven does for a lump of dough to make it bread.

There are virtues that pervade all aspects of the spiritual life even as yeast does in bread. One of these is gratitude. Ann Ree wrote,

Gratitude is the answer to get out of the sealed tomb. Gratitude stimulates all the virtues.

With gratitude we remember the Giver of all and know that we intuit but haven’t yet opened their full value because we can’t see what the leavening action within them will produce in its fullness.

Without appreciation, we may have the whole world but still be unhappy. There is always a negative somewhere that commandeers our attention and negates the wonder of the portion of good that has risen.

Ann Ree wrote,

Gratitude is the beginning of ecstasy.

Every spiritual practice we have contains the seed of ecstasy. A mantram, if it is properly spoken, and not carelessly, contains hope, higher suggestion, and a great key to our soul's treasure house of wisdom. Meditation, if it is not a duty but a joy, unites us with the limitless treasures yet to be opened in the great Unconscious. Study of spiritual instruction, if done with receptivity and holy expectation, takes us beyond static concepts and habits. Our gratitude for each of these truly does stimulate each virtue contained in them.

The animal kingdom takes nothing for granted. As Ann Ree once said, a dog will lick the hand of its owner in gratitude, and will stoically tolerate its master's flaws once it has placed its fidelity in him. The dog reveals the virtue of gratitude in the animal kingdom, and often exceeds humans in its expression.

Yogananda said,

You can find a flaw in the greatest painting or work of music. Isn't it better to see the grandeur in it?

It is important to realize that everything in the world has a flaw. And this flaw is actually a key to our learning. Like the serpent in the garden of Eden, there is a little something to catch us in the midst of our inertia and cause us through the consequences of our indifference to toil in the fields of Maya's raw material. It is from raw material, like the unleavened bread, that we have to add spiritual yeast to produce our spiritual food. When, as Job, we begin to take things for granted, or as our just due, we attract the loss of possessions, family, honor, and health - which through indifference become static and dead.

But the trial involved in their loss is also something we should be grateful for. Job kept his praise of God in his trials and through mastery opened the greater realizations behind the blessings of possessions, family, honor, and health. He was rewarded with more than he had before because he then knew their value.

When Jesus started a saying with the words, "The Kingdom of heaven is like," He was giving a key to true values. The most moving one is about the pearl of great price:

Again the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant man seeking goodly pearls.

Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.

When we value spiritual things so much that we would sell all for them, we have gone into true gratitude. Neglect then becomes much less likely. But it is so easy, when immersed in Maya, to be pulled by passing fancies.

When Jesus healed the ten lepers, it took nine of them only moments to become complacent. One returned to thank Him and likely knew much more happiness than the others.

The structure of Niscience began when Jonathan, in gratitude to Ann Ree for her ministry to him and the world, offered all he had to her cause. He left everything and devoted all his waking moments to preserving her teachings. His family disowned him, and he released a successful real estate career and all financial certainty to follow her.

Today, gratitude for God or Country is something of an embarrassment to many. Cynics love to demote both. Thanksgiving day has become largely a social occasion. But a sincere gratitude has another benefit: it protects one from the lower cynical mind. Ann Ree wrote,

The Satanic works through the intellect ... If one lives in a state of gratitude all the time, this is his real protection. Gratitude insulates him from the dark.

In the educational system, the use of the intellect has lost its morality. Teachers having intellectual morality are looked upon as idealistic, impractical. Cunning-mind intellect dependency is prevalent in the Self Genesis Age.

I had a dream in my teens that I believe was a blessing and reminder for caution against intellectual pride. A voice said to me, "A Leo must always be grateful." Of course, pride is a Leo downfall, but gratitude acknowledges the true Sun shining on our existence - and that Sun is not the ego.

When we can move from gratitude for a few things to gratitude for all, the calling card of one blessing turns into a cornucopia of grace. St. Paul exhorted the Thessalonians with this part of his epistle to them:

In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

A true gratitude in one thing eventually makes us look at all else we have been given. When we can expand our gratitude to all - even our pains and struggles, we become spiritual kings. I close with these words of Ann Ree,

The seven days are given to man that he might bring the report of good to his king. Man must discern what part of the day belongs to the king and what part of the day belongs to man. When all days belong to the king, man becomes the king.