771. What is the trunk and what are the branches of the "tree of life"? What are its outlines, that is to say, its outward appearance as a whole? Well, what the "tree of life" has in common with ordinary trees and plants is the fact that it is, in its outer appearance, a delight to the eye, which means it promotes joy and thereby inspires and stimulates new life. What is indeed more beautiful after a dark, frosty winter than to notice the arrival of spring in the countryside? And does not the arrival of spring culminate with new foliage bursting forth everywhere on all the trees and plants? Does it not give life and well-being to both soul and body to see the contours of winter's blue-black, leafless woods becoming bright green, radiant impulses? Is it not this that causes thousands of tiny throats to direct their songs of joy towards the heavens? The cuckoo does not call in leafless woods, nor does the lark usually sing over icy wastes. Only the tremendous colouration of spring, surging with colour and perfume from the forest tree tops, and the gardens filled with flowers and the green grass of the fields, can bring the vitality of summer to a culmination deep in the innermost physical heart of the living beings. But does one think it is any different in the case of the "tree of life"? Does one think that the mighty forests that are made up of this tree have a lesser mission?
      The term "tree of life" is actually simply an old symbolic expression for everything covered by the "triune principle". The tree of life is in reality the same as the "living being". Whereas "X1" and "X2" constitute respectively the tree's trunk and branches, "X3" constitutes the mighty foliage of its crown, its sap and its fruit, which in this case means the energies, movements, forces, substances or materials. These realities in turn constitute the outer aspect of everything covered by the concepts: wishes, thoughts, will, experience and manifestation. And as this is in turn the same as what we call "life", we have here the material for the "crown" of the "tree of life". This "crown" is nothing other than a unit in which the forces of an I in cooperation with its superconsciousness are impelled towards the building up and breaking down reaction that we call manifestation or creation, which in turn under no circumstances whatsoever can exist without constituting a declaration of the existence of this superior I or "divine something". And it is this kind of independent declaration that we call an "expression of life". The "crown" of the "tree of life" is the same as the sum total of the living being's expressions of life.