The first is the most difficult. To recognize this, let this fact penetrate deep. Howsoever painful, welcome it – only then can something be done. If you recognize it you will become humble, if you recognize it you will become simple, if you recognize it you will become childlike – then there is much possibility, then much opens.

And then the second step: be conscious. Whatsoever happens in the inner mind, be conscious about it. Don’t act! Don’t be in a hurry to act. Remain with the fact – alert. And see that this alertness works miraculously. It is a miracle. Observe the unconscious, and there is a sudden change. The quality, the very quality of the mind changes the moment you become an observer inside, a consciousness inside. The very quality of mind changes, the seed is broken asunder, and the plant is born.

Of course, it is delicate, very delicate, and one has to protect it continuously for many, many days, for many, many years and sometimes for many, many lives. But once begun, once the seed is broken, the plant will become a tree – and one day there is flowering.

That flowering is the concern of religion. To make man a flower is the whole concern of religion.