“Love and goodwill, if it’s just a thought without action, is no different from you
imagining taking food to feed a stray dog. And you imagine that it must be happy eating
the food you give it. But you are still lying at home. The stray dog hasn’t eaten your
food. Do you think love energy will arise?” he explained and asked.

“Yes, it will. I have love, you know,” I replied.

“Are you sure you truly feel joy or rapture? Have you ever done good without intending
to? Sometimes because you truly know they are in trouble, because you are sure they
really need help, and you decide to help them without thinking. Is that feeling different
from what you imagine?” he asked.

“Hmm… I think it’s different,” I replied vaguely.

“If that’s the case, then the religious teachers who teach us to frequently radiate lovingkindness, it has no effect on the world at all?” I asked.

“If you’re talking about energy effects, then certainly not. You’ve already witnessed that
it doesn’t. But if it’s about making you feel good, about giving your religion something
to do because they rarely have the opportunity to face conditions that require action,
because they are busy isolating themselves, far from the world, far from society, but it’s
still better than letting life be empty and meaningless, don’t you think?” he added.

“Wow!… You make it sound so bad. Is there no benefit at all?” I asked.

“For me, besides having no benefit, it even causes harm,” he said.

“Harm how?” I asked curiously.

“Harm caused by teaching the wrong things, making people cling to the wrong things.
It’s like you opening a cooking school. You have many students who come to learn from
you. You have your own signature recipes. The students trust you and dedicate their
lives to learning your recipes. But the truth is, the recipes you give them have no
nutritional value at all. And the students don’t know this, and neither do you, the
teacher. All the students who graduate still cook those dishes to feed their loved ones,
and they even teach others to cook the same recipes. Do you think this action is
beneficial or harmful?” he asked.

“Harmful.”

“Even if you know that it’s useless, these recipes have already been spread. People have
taught them to others. People have been misled into believing that they are beneficial.
What will you do in this case?” he continued to ask.

“I’ll tell them that they are useless,” I replied.

“Try telling that to the people who already believe in this, and see how they react to
you,” Phoche said, in a tone that suggested he didn’t believe I could correct this
misunderstanding.

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

“Beliefs, especially religious beliefs, are the hardest things to correct because it’s a
clinging that people are unaware they are doing. Because it’s clinging to individuals
instead of clinging to the truth,” he explained.

“Oh!… Are you saying that the Buddha taught the wrong thing about radiating lovingkindness?” I began to suspect.

“How do you know that the Buddha taught that?” he asked.

“Well, it’s recorded in the Tipitaka,” I replied.

“Did the Buddha write the Tipitaka with his own hand?” he continued.

“Uh… as far as I know, he didn’t write it himself. It was probably written after he passed
away,” I replied.

“Then how can you be sure that the information they recorded is accurate, especially
when the recording comes from intense faith in an individual, from customs and
traditions, from the values prevalent in society at that time, from old beliefs that were
already held?” he elaborated.

“What do you mean? The more you explain, the less I understand,” I asked because this
contradicted my feelings.

“You can think of it this way. If you were the Buddha and you had to write your own
biography, starting from your birth, do you think you would write that you were born
and lotus flowers sprang up to support your feet, allowing you to take seven steps?” he
asked.

“Uh… I really don’t know about that,” I replied.

“I can answer for the Buddha that there’s no way he would write that. Do you know
why?” he emphasized.

“Why?” I asked back.

“Because the Buddha is known as the enlightened one. He knew who he was, where he
came from, and he also knew who everyone on Earth is and where they came from. So,
he would never write anything that made himself seem special or write anything that
made people feel inferior to him,” he answered.

“Then why are there such records? Does that mean those records are wrong?” I asked.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“Uh… I’ve also wondered how a newborn baby could walk immediately after being
born from its mother’s womb, and whether lotus flowers could really spring up from
dry ground,” I commented.

“Whether it’s true or not, let’s set that aside for now. Just consider whether, if you were
the Buddha, you would allow anyone to record your biography that way, knowing that
we are all equal, that we all have the same spiritual parents, that we are all like
brothers and sisters, and that we should not create class divisions.”

“Hmm… then what causes these errors?” I continued to ask.

“It’s as I told you. The people who wrote these biographies had great faith in your
Buddha, so much so that they wanted to elevate him to someone superhuman, to create
praise and adoration. These feelings often arise from the values or social customs of
that time. And most importantly, these records are often mixed with old beliefs that are
the roots of your original culture, the idea of trying to turn people into gods through
superficial miracles instead of focusing on the miracle of wisdom, even though the
Buddha clearly had the miracle of wisdom. There’s no need to wrap him in these
superficial miracles,” he further explained.

“I don’t know how true everything you’ve said is,” I said, “but it makes me feel like
everything we cling to, especially the recorded teachings, may need to be re-examined.
This is just the beginning, and we can already analyze so much. What about the rest?
What will it be like?”

“I told you before, only a few percent of the truth will remain after it has passed
through time and been embellished by human thought,” he reiterated.

“I’m starting to feel unsure about many things. What is true? What is false? I’m starting
to get confused,” I expressed my feelings.

“Don’t worry. I will gradually take you to see some things that few people have the
opportunity to see. I will guide you through every nook and cranny of this world
myself,” he said with a sincerity that I could feel.

“Thank you very much for your kindness,” I replied.

“Shall we continue?” he invited.

“Yes, let’s go.”

After speaking, he immediately led me into the emerald green matter in front of us.
Once inside, I didn’t feel any density or obstruction. On the contrary, it felt light and open, like entering outer space, but a green space with the shimmering sparkle of
something indescribable.

“Why do I feel so light and open like this?” I asked while traveling through the oxygen
mass.

“Because you have become one with it,” he replied.

“One with it how?” I asked.

“It’s like a fish that feels one with the water. It breathes in the water, it lives in the
water, so it doesn’t feel separate from the water. It barely even feels that it’s in the
water,” he explained.

“Is it related?” I asked.

“If you are not one with it, like when you used to breathe air and suddenly jumped into
water, you can’t breathe in the water, so you will feel uncomfortable because you are a
foreign object there. And at this time, which is a time when you are only a mind, you
have no physical limitations. Oneness therefore occurs easily. You just have to not cling
to anything as real, and you will be free. The mind, by its nature, has no limitations, no
shape. What appears to you, such as my shape, your shape, is merely a creation of the
mind,” he explained.

“Right now, I think I only understand about half of what you’ve said. I don’t know if you
explain poorly or if I have difficulty understanding,” I said apologetically.

“It’s alright. This knowledge is not essential. Just listen and let it pass. Don’t use it as a
measure of anything in yourself. One day, you will understand everything clearly on
your own. And on that day, you will realize that nothing is substantial. Everything is
just as it is,” he concluded, which made me feel better.

Soon, Phoche brought me to a place that was unlike any we had been to before. Behind
me was still the emerald green matter, but what was in front of me… I didn’t know how
to describe its characteristics.

What was in front of me, I was certain, had to be a solid object. It had no moving parts
whatsoever. Its color was a lustrous black and it shone with a glossy sheen. This object
stood tall as if it were an impassable barrier.

“Have we reached the Earth’s core?” I turned to Phoche and asked.

“Not yet. It’s not surprising that you would think this is the Earth’s core because what’s
in front of us is an object known to be the strongest. No other object is stronger. This is
the last barrier before entering Gaia’s core. This has a perfectly symmetrical spherical
shape, with a diameter of only about 12 kilometers. Compared to the entire world, it’s
like a tiny grain of sand in the middle of a soccer field. In fact, it’s the same compound
as what you call diamond, but thousands of times denser. And because its outermost surface has been subjected to friction from these oxygen masses for a very long time, it
has the black color and glossy sheen you see,” he explained.

“This is so exciting. How deep are we?” I asked.