"But because they never lose it, they can't be aware of it. They can't know where they are. To know where you are, you will have to lose it first. That's how knowing becomes possible: by losing.

"You know a thing only when you have lost it. If you have never lost it, if it has always been there, you naturally take it for granted. It becomes so obvious that you become oblivious to it.

"Trees are still in paradise, and the mountains and the stars, but they don't know where they are. Only man can know. A tree can't become a buddha. Not that there is any difference between the inner nature of a buddha and a tree, but a tree can't become a buddha, a tree is already a buddha! To become a buddha, the tree first has to lose its nature; it has to go away from itYou can only see things from a certain perspective. If you are too close to them, you cannot see them. What Buddha has seen, no tree has ever seen. It is available to trees and to animals, but only a buddha becomes conscious of it – and paradise is regained.

"Paradise is only when it is regained. Nature's beauties and mysteries are revealed only when you come back home. When you go against your nature, when you go farthest from yourself, only then one day does the return journey start. When you become thirsty for nature, when you start dying without it, you start returning.

"This is the original fall. Man's consciousness is his original fall, his original sin. But without the original sin, there is no possibility of a Buddha or a Christ.

"The first thing to be understood is: man can choose. He is the only animal in existence who can choose, who can do things which are not natural, who can do things which should not be done, who can go against himself and against existence, who can destroy himself and all his bliss, who can create hell.

"By creating hell, the contrast is created, and then one can see what heaven is. Only through the contrast, is there the possibility to know."