“Alright!” Ruthorn said, sitting up straight and giving me an encouraging clap on the back. “Now that you have acknowledged the existence of God, you have an appointment to meet Him tonight at three in the morning.” This took me by surprise as I felt I wasn’t prepared for it yet.

“I will meet God?? Didn’t you say that God doesn’t have a physical form?” I asked.

“Well, I didn’t say that you will meet him in a specific form. Please follow my lead and you will understand what I mean. He will be waiting for you on the hilltop,” Ruthorn said reassuringly.

“I have to admit that I’m a little confused now,” I replied. “I always thought it was you who I was supposed to meet since everyone who welcomed me earlier told me that I had to meet the ‘Ruler’ on this hill. I thought you are the one, but now you’re telling me that I have to go and meet God?” I said, feeling quite overwhelmed by the thought.

“I think there is a slight misunderstanding here. They called God the Ruler because we do call Him by that name as well to describe His role in ruling over the entire universe and cosmos.”

“God has so many roles. When we define Him in his role as the creator of all things, we call him the Creator. When we define Him in His role of possessing all knowledge, we will call Him the Doctrine. And when we define Him in the role of the owner of the entire universe and the cosmos, we can also call him the Ruler,” Ruthorn explained.

“So why do I have to go there at three o’clock in the morning? Can’t I just go and meet him right now? I’m rather afraid of the dark,” I admitted.

“This is what God wishes. I can’t tell you why, but I believe He has good reasons for that,” Ruthorn replied.

“I still owe you another lesson, you should come by this evening,” he said.

“What’s the topic of this lesson?” I asked curiously.

“I would like to share with you more about the qualities that a highly evolved being must possess. But now it’s lunchtime for us, so let’s have lunch first before we continue our conversation later,” said Ruthorn.

“Where are we going to have lunch?” I asked.

“The people from the city bring food for us twice a day, in the morning and in the afternoon; they would bring and serve it at the reception room on the ground floor,” replied Piet.

“Alright, that sounds good,” I said, suddenly feeling quite hungry after Ruthorn’s long lecture.

We stood up and started to walk down the stairs together. Piet took the lead, going straight to the room that I had walked past this morning, while Hepf stayed at my side.

“So, you only have only two meals a day?” I asked him while we were walking.

“Yes,” Hepf replied.

“Similar to the monks in my world, they also only eat twice a day,” I commented.

“We only have two meals because we don’t want to bother the people who bring us food. Climbing all the way up here twice a day is difficult enough for them. If they have to come in the evening, it would be harder for them to return to the city before it gets dark. That’s why we only ask them to come in the morning and in the afternoon,” he explained.

“So, they walk all the way up here twice a day? That must be quite exhausting,” I commented.

“It is, but they do it voluntarily. Together they schedule the date and time for each volunteer to come. In fact, it’s not the same person every time but the shared responsibility of all people in the city.”

“Ah, I see,” I said, “it’s quite similar to the way people put food offerings in the monk’s alms bowl every day back where I lived,” I remarked.

“Yes, that sounds very similar to how we do it here, but it’s not exactly the same as everyone here uses the mental language to organise their turn. Since they already know the number of beings who stay up here, they can prepare the right amount of food in advance,” Hepf said.

It took us about 10 minutes to walk down the building and we finally arrived at the huge reception room, which had been set as a dining room for the three of us. It was very spacious, and the ceiling, as high as a four or five-story building, made the dining table look tiny. When we arrived, there already was a group of people waiting for us. They were all dressed up as if they were going to a gala, each of them wearing the most elegant clothes, which, in contrast, made me feel quite underdressed. They were standing in a row like attendants ready to serve their patrons in a luxurious restaurant.

“Please join us!” The group of women and men welcomed us.

“Thank you, thank you very much,” I said politely to everyone.

I sat down at the table which had been set for three. There was a beautiful vase with colourful flowers on the table, and in front of us, the tableware and cutlery were neatly arranged.  It looked like a formal banquet traditionally organised by nobles to welcome their privileged guests.

“Have they prepared this banquet for a special occasion? This is so luxurious,” I remarked, quite impressed.

“No, this is quite normal here,” said Hepf, turning to me.

When we started to eat, the women and men stood around us and all took turns in serving us very particular dishes, some of which I had never eaten before. It took us half an hour to finish our meal, and I truly enjoyed all the different tastes.

“I’m indeed quite full now and have thoroughly enjoyed this dinner. I’d like to thank all of you for this delicious meal,” I said, standing up and bowing left and right.

“We’re so honoured to serve you,” a young man standing in the group said.

Then another man, who was standing at the end of the row, picked up a small kettle from which he poured a beverage into our cups. When I took a sip of it, I recognised immediately what it was.

“Hey, this is Mr. Wen’s tea,” I said, pleasantly surprised.

“Yes, it is,” said Hepf, smiling broadly, “and the creator of the original recipe has come to serve it himself,” he singled out a person among the group.

When I looked up to see who had served us the tea, I saw a very handsome young man.

“So, you must be Mr. Wen, the tea shop owner,” I said. “To be honest, I thought you would be older.”

“My soul is old, but my appearance has already been renewed,” he replied with a smile.

“Excuse me, but what do you mean by ‘renewing your appearance’?” I asked him.

“Wen came from Gaia in the same way you did. After having lived in our world for 147 years he died, but then he was reborn in his group. We knew it was him, so we continued to call him by his old name,” Hepf explained.

“I’m very pleased to meet you, Mr. Wen, and thank you for your special tea,” I said gratefully.

“The pleasure is all mine,” he replied politely, “I’m glad that you like my tea,” he replied.

“A friend of mine gave me your tea this morning, that’s why I immediately recognised it as yours,” I explained.

“Really? I feel very honoured,” Wen said, visibly pleased.

The three of us stood up and thanked the group who had served us this lovely meal. Then we went back to the room where we were earlier.