"We learn one lesson from the seed that diamonds have never taught us. For seeds, unlike diamonds, are for spending--for throwing away, almost. For unless the seed falls into the ground, dying buried in the darkness of the earth for due season, there can be no spring nor harvest. The image of the seed is the living message of truth for all of us: that death of some kind is the cause of all renewal. 'Death', albeit in inverted commas, is a cause; and life its consequence. Thus sleep is a little death: but so are looking and listening, which require a condition of self-emptying, or 'dying to know', before communication from the other can be received. So, 'expiring' with every breath, we may grow continuously, until the time arrives when we must all experience the irreversible state of change, called death."
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As cited by Trevelyan, George (1977). A Tent in Which to Pass a Summer Night. Stillpoint. p. 81.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/E._Graham_Howe
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E. Graham Howe
Eric Graham Howe (February 3, 1897 – June 8, 1975) was a British psychiatrist notable for his focus on psychodynamic psychology, existential phenomenology, and spirituality. He was associated with the Tavistock Clinic in the late 1920s and early 1930s and the Open Way Clinic in the 1950s and 1960s.
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