"What is growth for a seed? The seed must die as a seed – only then is the tree born. The possibility begins to become actual.

"A seed can die in two ways. It can just die without growing; then it is negative death. Or a seed can die to grow; then it is positive death, and positive death is the door to more life. Positive death means dying for something – dying to grow, disappearing from one plane to appear on another. Man can remain a seed, and many men die negative deaths without growing, without transcending themselves, without disappearing from one plane to appear on another.

"Nietzsche has said somewhere that man is only when he transcends himself: you are only when you are disappearing from below and appearing above. It is a continuous process of dying to the material and being born more conscious. But a seed can be satisfied and can remain satisfied to be a seed. It is even difficult for a seed to conceive of what he can be, even to dream about it seems impossible. How can a seed dream of what he can be? Even to conceive of the possibility of being a tree will just look absurd. How can a seed be a tree? Even if the tree is there just by the seed, the seed cannot conceive that this tree was once a seed, and that 'I also can be a tree.'

"Buddha has said, 'I cannot give you truth, but I can give you a dream. Look at me, and your potentialities, your possibilities, will begin to stir. Something will begin to throb for the future; something within you will begin to long for that which can be.' A buddha is a tree – not only a tree, but a tree which has come to flower. We are seeds. Think of man as a seed. Then what can be the flowering? For man's tree, what can be the flowering? Flowers of consciousness, of course."