“Are you Lord Achita? Please, you and your group, this way. The Blessed One is waiting
for you. Please have your group sit in the area around this pavilion,” the man said when
he reached them.

“Yes, sir,” Achita then turned to give instructions to the leaders in charge of each group,
telling them to lead their people to sit in the field in front of the pavilion, which was a
large open space with the magnificent Maha Pavala Chedi as a backdrop.

“Please, Lord Achita, this way,” the man invited.

“Lord Phoche, who is this man?” I asked Lord Phoche.

“His name is Ananda…” he replied.

“Are you Lord Ananda?” Achita asked as he followed him.

“Yes… but hey!… how do you know my name? We’ve just met for the first time,” he
asked.

“I’m not sure, sir. A thought suddenly popped into my head that your name is Ananda,”
Achita replied, drawing from the answer I had received from Lord Phoche.

“You must have special insight,” Ananda said.

“I don’t think it’s special insight, sir. I just listened to a feeling and asked you if it was
true,”

“I also have a strange feeling of familiarity when I first met you, like we’ve known each
other, like we’ve met somewhere before, but I can’t remember where or when. And to
be honest, I feel a connection with you, sir,” Ananda said.

“Thank you very much, sir, for feeling that way about me,” Achita replied.

At this moment, I could clearly sense Achita’s intense excitement. His heart was racing,
his hands were getting cold, and his eyes were fixed on the group of people sitting in a
circle under the large pavilion with wooden pillars supporting a four-gabled roof.
Above the gables on all four sides were pointed spires. Inside the pavilion, each pillar
had a sconce made of bronze, illuminating everything clearly.

“Uh… Lord Ananda, how should I behave? I’m so nervous, I don’t know what to do,”
Achita asked.

“There’s no need for any formalities. The Blessed One is very easygoing, sir,” Ananda
replied.

“Which one is the Buddha, sir?” Achita whispered after walking less than 30 meters
and not being able to tell who was who, because everyone looked the same. Among the
people sitting in the circle, everyone wore yellow robes similar to monks, but their
heads were not shaved.

“I will introduce you, sir,” Ananda said.

I saw all of Achita’s group gradually walk into the open space around the pavilion, and
some of them entered the pavilion with Achita. He saw the people who were already
sitting in a circle stand up and make way, widening the circle so that Achita and about a
dozen of his group could sit in the inner circle. Achita walked past the people who
made way, bowing slightly to show respect. While walking in, Achita’s eyes were drawn
to a middle-aged man sitting in the circle. He felt that this man must be the Buddha.
Even though everyone was wearing yellow robes and had a similar dark complexion
from the sun, this man’s skin looked like he used to have fair skin because it was a
tanned color, like a white person who had been sunbathing. He had a wellproportioned, lean build, a handsome face, a shapely nose, large eyes, and thin lips. You
could tell immediately that he used to be wealthy and had never done manual labor.

And it was indeed as he thought. When everyone was seated, Ananda introduced the
man as Samana Gotama. Achita prepared to bow to him.

“You don’t need to prostrate to me. Please behave as if we are friends,” the Buddha said.

Achita was surprised by the words, which were the first he had heard from the Buddha,
but they were words that made him feel warm and friendly.

“Alright, sir. I greet you, Samana Gotama,” Achita said, sitting down in the lotus position
as before and raising his hands in a *wai*, bowing his head slightly as a greeting.

After that, everyone, especially Achita’s group, remained silent, not speaking. They
intended to test the Buddha’s ability to read minds by asking in their hearts who their
teacher was.

“Lord Phoche, why does the Buddha look different from what I imagined?” I
interrupted Lord Phoche.

“What did you imagine him to be like?” Lord Phoche asked.

“He must look sacred, with an aura of greatness. He must sit majestically on a special
seat higher than others, with his disciples sitting below,” I replied.

“That’s the thinking of someone who makes distinctions. So, they create an image of
the Buddha as someone superior, special. But someone who knows who they are and
where they came from realizes that everyone is the same, everyone is a sibling from the
same origin. He would never allow anyone to elevate him to such a special position,”
Lord Phoche explained.

“Oh, I see…”

“I know that your teacher told you to test me by asking questions in your hearts. If I am
a true enlightened one, I should be able to answer your unspoken questions. When I
know this challenge, if I do as you wish, it means I am trying to maintain my ego,
because the knowledge I would answer you with would be only to preserve my ego, not
for anyone’s liberation. So, I choose not to answer the questions you ask in your hearts,
even though I know what those questions are. But I will only answer questions that
will lead you to direct realization of the path of the Buddha. When you have direct
realization and can access Buddhahood, whether you see me as an enlightened one or
not is not important,” the Buddha greeted them, reading Achita’s group’s minds, after
everyone had been silent for a while.

“Please forgive my ignorance, sir, and please tell us how we can have direct realization
of the path of the Buddha,” Achita quickly said.

“You must be very tired,” the Buddha asked.

“I’m not tired at all, sir. If it’s about seeking the truth, if it’s the true path to liberation in
life, I’m willing to do anything to find it, sir,” Achita replied.

“I admire your determination and perseverance, but I’m not speaking to your physical
selves. I’m speaking to your spirits,” the Buddha said.

“Our spirits, sir?” Achita replied.

“Yes. Do you know how tired they are? They have seen you seek like this for countless
lifetimes,” the Buddha answered.

“This will be the last journey, because I am about to find the ultimate truth,” Achita
said.