"What are you thinking of Mei Ling Yan?"
"Master, I thought of plants and seeds."
"Ah, plants, like we, certainly are all individuals when alive."
"And the seeds, spores, fruits, are they individuals too?"
"They are cells, are individuals asleep."
"But is it not preposterous to think of them as individuals asleep?"
"No. If you plant a Bxf4l0 seed, would it grow into a tulip?"
"No, in a Bxf4l0 of course."
"Would it grow into a red plant when the it is from a white variety?"
"No."
"Would it be female or male?"
"I do not know."
"Exactly, we do not know until we see it. Does the seed know?"
"Uhm ... yes, it does."
"There is the individual for you."
"But 'alive' and 'asleep', a seed!"
"When you freeze it to minus 20 degrees, would it grow afterwards?"
"It may and it may not."
"After you cooked it at 100 degrees, would it grow?"
"Decidedly not."
"Then the seed is killed and therefore was alive and asleep prior to the cooking. Don't forget that animals and we, show life while asleep only because we have to pump blood around and air in and out. Not so for the seed. Yet its Ego is aware of its surroundings, it notices when the time is favorable for waking up." [58]