Why do the seed and the fruit not mean the same thing?
The seed is the process at the level of information, while the fruit is the usable knowledge that the process is capable of teaching.
The seed contains the entire process, but it does not contain the circumstances. The process can only run if the circumstances are appropriate; otherwise, it is interrupted.
The fruit may still not appear even if the process runs its course. The fruit represents knowledge that we are capable of acquiring only if we recognize that this is possible during the process and also want to acquire the knowledge that the process makes possible.
Acquiring knowledge requires effort, attention, and activity on our part. The process only makes it possible to acquire the fruit, but the fruit can only become ours if we use the process according to its purpose.
The fruit is nothing other than the complete knowing of the process, which has always been contained in the seed. By acquiring the fruit, we come to know the process, as well as what it makes us capable of.
If the fruit, the ability, is already in our possession, then the seed also comes into our possession; the seed of the fruit-bearing tree is in the fruit, because we are capable of using and passing on the process only when we already know it completely.