Our life-fruit and our soul-root need each other.
Roots are the source, fruits the goal. Roots represent raw materials, fruits the finished product. Roots are the inner world, fruits the outer world. It might be said that roots promote aspiration, while fruits attract desire. We are generally more attracted to fruits than we are to roots.
Of course the tree, like life, needs both roots and fruits to flourish. A tree may be judged by the quality of its apples, yet the greatest factor determining the quality of those apples is the health and strength of the tree’s roots. Healthy roots make healthy fruits.
Meditation is attending to our roots, to our inner existence, to the source of our consciousness, our all. There is no more important activity, none more influential and beneficial to the fruits of our health, wellbeing, happiness, success and spiritual progress – all of which grow and flow directly or indirectly from our inner consciousness.
Yet while the tendency of the modern world is to neglect the roots of our being in favour of our obsession with the fruits of our outer existence, the opposite tendency – to focus all our attention on the roots of spiritual practice and spurn the fruits of the outer world as meaningless or of no consequence – is also an unsatisfactory approach to life.
Roots exist under the ground to serve and nourish the fruits above. Fruits are the most delicious part of a tree, its offering and legacy. While it is essential to attend to our roots, to meditate and fathom our spiritual depths, nevertheless we are here in the world for a reason: to utilise the nourishment from our roots to produce ever-more beautiful, fragrant and nourishing action- and service-fruits for the benefit and inspiration of the world.