Garden & Growth

Scripture: Matthew 13: 2-9. The Parable of the Sower

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no roots. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Summary: The innate life of our Higher Self compels growth that fulfills the inner seed of our design for wholeness. Many obstacles exist in us that hinder this growth, just as poor soil conditions can retard the growth of physical seeds. Obstacles to this evolutionary growth in us can be factors such as being trapped in dogma, materialism, chronic frustration, stubbornness, and shallow emotional interests.

The story of sower of seeds illustrates an important insight about growth of both literal seeds as well as the figurative seeds of our human and spiritual possibilities. The future of both these types seeds depends on the type of “soil” that receives them.

The receptive soil that receives the seeds of our mature knowledge, virtues and skills is the state and quality of our consciousness. More specifically, it is our ability to learn new ideas, beliefs, and coping skills. This capacity to receive and learn new perspectives, views, and methods depend on:

• having a prepared consciousness with an adequate base of knowledge and abilities
• our unfettered curiosity and conviction that there is always more to learn
• and our ability to absorb new views, beliefs, and priorities
• our willingness to acknowledge that we need to upgrade and revise our beliefs, habits, methods, and overt behavior rather than expecting others and society to make most of the changes.

The states of our usual attitude, alertness, and focus of attention are the equivalent of the different types of soil in this story of the sower of seeds. Just as some types of soil are not fertile ground for receiving the new seed, our frame of mind and mood can obstruct our growth of understanding and mature emotions. Very little improvement will occur in our state of consciousness if we remain anxious, discouraged, resentful, or apathetic.

Thus, we will rarely welcome new perspectives or attitudes if we are strongly fixed in our beliefs and have strict standards and rules about what is acceptable or not. A rigid frame of mind and an abundance of permanent convictions is the equivalent of the seeds that fall on the hard-packed soil of the well-trodden path. The soil is so densely packed that is cannot receive and grow the new seeds. The human counterpart is found in those who appear to have a “bulletproof mind” that resists and repels any new ideas, views, or “unpleasant facts” that do not conform to their preferred views and convictions.

Those individuals who are preoccupied about their personal comfort and welfare and rarely think of anything beyond their personal convenience can be compared to the rocky soil that is so shallow that is cannot grow anything of substance. New growth of ideas and attitudes will not thrive because there is insufficient substance in terms of sustained interest and self-discipline to foster their development.

People who tend to be continually upset about the beliefs and behavior of others and are eager to condemn them also represent a category of “poor soil” that will reject new seeds or ideas. Some of these individuals have become obsessed with their grievances and will often become aggressive in their attitude, speech, and conduct. While many of such people believe these are virtuous acts, they stifle growth in other areas. This is the state of consciousness that is like the soil that is covered with thorn bushes which will crowd out all other growth that tries to take root.

It is only the good soil that can support proper growth of the seeds of our higher human and spiritual possibilities. The requires a state of thought and emotions that are relatively free of these obstacles:

• the equivalent of hard packed soil: a mind filled with dogma, ideology, fixed ideas, beliefs, and habits. The standard view is that “there is only one right way” to think and act. There is no room for new perspectives, standards, or methods
• the equivalent of the shallow soil: lacks sustained interest; apathetic about work and important sacrifices of time and effort; indifferent about personal responsibility and willingness to “pay their dues” to earn what they want
• the equivalent of the soil filled with thorn bushes: agitated by unresolved conflict and busy playing the “blame game” where most everything the fault of others; attention is usually turned toward “the battle” against what is disliked and deemed offensive.

Another way to view the major obstacles to our evolution and growth of our higher human and spiritual potentials is to search for good developments that never happened. Many problems are the result of favorable events that failed to occur instead of the bad experiences that did take place. This list of obstacles includes the failure to:

• develop a mature and confident self-image and world view
• cultivate essential knowledge and coping skills for managing criticism, conflict, loss, rejection, failure, mistakes, and chronic anger, sadness, and anxiety

And most important of all, the failure to acknowledge the embarrassing truth about our self that we often sabotage our success by:

• refusing to give up dysfunctional habits and attitudes such as being stubborn and unwilling to cooperate
• refusing to admit we have been wrong about our interpretations and decisions
• refusing to make an effective contribution to coping with our difficulties, and instead, demanding that others make all the sacrifices and adjustments.

While much is known about these obstacles to growth, many choose to do little about removing negative qualities and habits. Instead, they:

• deny that these attitudes and beliefs are a problem
• excuse their presence by claiming overwhelming problems and interference prevents them from doing more than they have already done
• apply clever rationalizations to justify the continued use of dysfunctional methods which can include the use of anger, threats, and other forces to resist what they dislike, intimidate their adversaries, or practice emotional blackmail.