Bread and the Essence of Craftmanship –

How does a master craftsman use bread-making for presence?

Amidst these days of mass marketing and food production, one man here makes bread by hand for his community.

Craftsmanship requires attention in the moment for a finished product to be both useful and beautiful. Presence to detail creates a harmonious and wholesome result. For millennia, mankind have treated bread-making as an art, using the simplest ingredients. How does one make bread well, with full attention?

“When you know how to do one thing well, you can do everything.” – Gurdjieff

A baker takes flour, adding water and finally fire–the third force–to create food in the form of bread. Our inner practice–creating fine energies–likewise requires third force. The process of transformation with the help of fire was the focus of the previous issue, on fire and the uses of suffering: https://fourthwaytoday.org

Bread, the staff of life. What is essential for the body? What food is required for the soul?

Reaching for a spoon, stirring a pot, adding salt, tasting, is an opportunity to practice opening to our capacity to feel, taste, touch, smell and hear. –  Zen  Master Dogen

Bread-Making at Apollo

In the following video, a master baker describes his process of making bread at Apollo, the headquarters of the school of the Fellowship of Friends, Inc. More than five hundred live at this headquarters, employed in a variety of crafts and industries, practitioners of the Fourth Way.

For more on Apollo and our worldwide centers, click here: https://fourthwaytoday.org/contact/

Also, to learn more about this baker, read here: laura-petersen-a-value-worth-sharing-oregon-house-bread-maker-finds-path-with-ancient-grains.