After the Buddha and Phaya Asoka stayed in Vaishali City for only 15 days, Achita’s
caravan arrived.

“And then Achita finally met the Buddha. How far was the total distance?” I asked.

“Almost four thousand kilometers,” he answered.

“Wow! That’s amazing for walking,” I exclaimed.

“Yes, the Buddha intended to travel through every possible city. This is the origin of the
legend of the Lord Who Traveled the World, recorded in ancient stories. But because it
has been copied for thousands of years, some parts have been dropped or lost, which is
normal,” Lord Phoche narrated.

“What will happen from now on?” I asked curiously.

“One evening, Achita’s caravan, which had just traveled from Mithila City, the Videha
region, about 160 kilometers northeast of Vaishali City, near present-day Chaiyaphum
province, had been traveling for 9 days. When they entered the Vaishali City area,
where houses were densely packed, about 5 kilometers from Vaishali City, which was a
vast community befitting the city’s name ‘Vaishali,’ they stopped to camp on the
outskirts of the city,” Lord Phoche began.

“Lord Phoche, doesn’t the word ‘city’ usually mean that the houses are within the city
walls or around the city walls? Because Achita’s group is 5 kilometers away from the
city, but there are still densely packed houses,” I asked.

“Generally, that’s the case. But because this place was a special economic zone, with a
large number of people coming to trade, the city expanded widely, especially along the
main roads leading to the city,” Lord Phoche answered.

“Alright, from now on, it would be better for you to see the scene through Achita’s
eyes,” Lord Phoche said.

“Alright,” I replied.

Achita woke up early the next morning. The followers, who were the supply caravan,
supported by the kings of Ujjeni and Savatthi, began cooking. Some went out for alms
in the community, as was the custom of ascetics. Some washed themselves in the river.
Today, Achita informed the caravan that they would stop traveling for one day to rest.
And they instructed volunteers to go out and inquire with the villagers if anyone had
seen the Buddha’s group pass by. When anyone had news, they were to report back
quickly, so they could plan their journey the next day. After everyone finished their
daily routines, the volunteers went out to gather news. But because this area was far
from the city, and the Buddha hadn’t traveled this way, no one knew anything.

Around 2 p.m., a messenger on horseback from the city brought news that the Buddha
was waiting for his group at Pavala Chedi. The Buddha knew that Achita’s group had
arrived since the previous night. Achita and all his followers quickly packed their
belongings and set off. He was so excited that he couldn’t wait even a minute. If he had
known that the Buddha was waiting in this city from the beginning, he would have
rushed to meet him without stopping. The distance from where they camped, plus the
distance they had to go around the city to reach Pavala Chedi, was a total of 8
kilometers. He felt that those 8 kilometers were the longest he had ever traveled. Every
step was slow and frustrating. He felt a mixture of eagerness and thirst to meet the
Buddha that was hard to describe. It was a combination of excitement, nervousness,
joy, and anxiety. It was a strange mix of feelings, combined with traveling for a year, a
tired body, sore ankles, and skin burned by the scorching sun, that made his mind
clearly separate from his body, until he felt like there was someone else inside him.

“Hey!… what’s happening to me…” Achita murmured to himself.

“I am inside you now,” I felt like I wanted to say something to Achita, so I tried to send
this feeling to him.

“Who are you and why are you with me?” Achita responded in his thoughts. I was
surprised that he perceived and responded.

“I am you, but I am from the future,” I tried to introduce myself.

“The future, you say?” Achita asked back.

“Do you believe me?” I asked.

“Nonsense. I must be tired from the long journey and my mind is starting to
hallucinate,” he thought to himself.

“Wait, wait. I am real. I come in the form of thoughts. I myself don’t want to believe that
I can communicate with you because you are my past. I don’t know how to explain,” I
tried to talk to him again.

“…” There were no thoughts in response.

“Lord Phoche, why doesn’t Achita believe that I am inside him at this moment?” I asked
Lord Phoche.

“He is no different from most people on your world who believe more in the conscious
mind and overlook the spirit. And the matter of the spirit is difficult to explain, as you
just said. And I told you that the spirit has no time, or in other words, the spirit can
travel without the obstacle of time. But humans with physical bodies have time, which
has a horizontal or linear nature, that is, it has a beginning, a middle, and an end. But
the time of the spirit has a vertical nature. What’s more complex is that within every
moment of the horizontal linear time, there are infinite vertical lines, meaning it is endless. Therefore, those who enter the state of oneness with the spirit can connect
with the time framework that has both horizontal and vertical lines, which can
intersect at any point, whether it is the past, present, or future,” Lord Phoche
explained.

“Oh… everything you explained doesn’t make me understand any better,” I replied.

“It’s okay… I just want you to know that those who know these secrets or those who are
outside the rules can know the past and the future. This is normal for the spirit that is
not under the laws of the Earth’s magnetic field. But for those who are under the laws,
it is still hidden,” Lord Phoche explained.

“It sounds complicated and difficult to understand.”

“In fact, when you are with me at this moment, it is the same state. We are in a vertical
time, which is one moment of the horizontal time that is ongoing on your world. You
can imagine it this way. Everyone on Earth has their own horizontal timeline. Each
person has one line. No matter how many tens or hundreds of thousands of lives you
are born and die, your timeline will continue. Everyone’s timelines run parallel. But
there is the time of the spirit that is free from time intersecting at every moment. That
moment, compared to horizontal time, is about 1/30th of a second. And in each
moment, there is time that has no beginning, no middle, and no end, or what you call
infinite. Think about how many of these moments there are throughout your life,
throughout all your lives.”

“That’s enough. I still don’t understand no matter how you explain. I will try to
understand it myself. I’m just surprised about the matter of time,” I said.

Then Achita focused on walking until he reached Pavala Chedi in the evening. The
image I saw now was a low wall, about one and a half meters high. It was a wall
intentionally built to show what was inside. The area within the wall was a square,
about 500 meters long on each side. Outside the wall, there were lanterns decorated
with many small openings filled with oil lamps, making the area bright as if there was a
festival. Each side of the wall had four entrances. Walking through an entrance, you
would see many small rectangular chedi, about 5-6 meters high, built of brick and
plastered, arranged in rows leading to the center point. Looking at the end of the rows
of small chedi, there was a huge and magnificent structure. At the top was a
rectangular chedi similar to a prang in Bodh Gaya, but much larger. The chedi was
decorated with shining gold leaf, glittering as if this was the most important thing. This
chedi stood on two tiered bases, made of laterite stone. The first base was about 70
meters wide. The second base was about 50 meters wide. The second base had a
cloister, a roof tiled with terracotta tiles, and small pointed spires surrounding the
golden chedi. Every part of this place was illuminated by tens of thousands of oil
lamps, making the entire area bright, beautiful, and breathtaking.

When Achita’s group entered through the south entrance, they saw pavilions at each
corner of the four walls, with walkways along the walls leading to those pavilions.

There was a group of people sitting in one of the pavilions, and one of them was
walking out of the pavilion towards me.