« **Bodh Gaya, India 500 BCE** » A man sat below a bodhi tree with his eyes closed, his breathing slow and rhythmic. The man had been meditating for years, searching for the answer to the meaning of suffering. For forty-nine days and forty-nine nights, the man sat below this tree, meditating in extreme stillness. His head was clear of all thoughts, all desires, and all inhibitions. He felt hollow, yet so full at the same time. His senses were heightened to the human extreme. The singing of the birds in the distance was so clear that it felt like he was surrounded by a symphony of them, as was the sound of a river from miles away. He was beginning to achieve something. He could feel every vein on his body pumping blood, every beat his heart made, every breath he took. He could feel flow of movement in every nook and cranny of his body. At long last, he felt the answer within reach. As he opened his eyes, for which he had not opened for forty-nine days and forty-nine nights, he felt them burn with an unexplainable energy and they glowed a brilliant gold. His pupil began to bend and contort, taking the form of an eight-pronged wheel that spun ever so slightly. Then came the voices. The man heard not with his ears, as he had just transcended all forms of human senses, but he heard with his soul. He heard the playful cries of children in China, the laughter of hearty men in the heat of the Sahara, and the gossip of women in Rome. Dogs that roamed the field, eagles that cawed as they soared through the heavens; He felt every single one, all at once, and he understood them all. And at long last, he had found the answer he had been striving for long.