Hermann Hesse. Siddhartha (№ 165436)

- Here is a stone, after some time, he may be, will turn to dust, and the earth will become plant, animal or human. In the old days I would have said, "This stone is only stone. It has no value, it belongs to the world of Maya. But as in the cycle of reincarnations he can become a man or spirit, I follow him recognize the value." So, probably, I have talked to before. Now, I think. This stone is stone; he is animal, he is God, he is the Buddha. I love and respect him not for what he ever may become one or the other, but for the fact that it is long and there is always both. Because it is stone that it now appears to me a stone just because I love it and see value and meaning in each of its veins and wells, in his yellow or grey, in his hardness, in the sound that it makes when I knock at it, in the dryness or wetness of its surface.