According to the students of the Book of Mysteries known as Kabala in Judaism, and the esoteric teachings of Islam’s Sufism, however, different things were also being said… Based on these teachings, man was made in God’s image and everything at any given time was a transpiration of God’s wish. There were no rights and wrongs; all things happened because they were meant to happen and that was it. After death a similar form of life was to continue.
Of course the materialists had a completely different approach… According to them, the universe was in a constant state of transformation. Matter in time had turned into prokaryotic cells, which had then evolved into eukaryotic cells, which had eventually formed moving forms of life that had in turn led to the formation of animals and finally humans, who eventually die, and thus goes the cycle...
To put it very simply, these were the kind of thoughts humans dwelled upon.
Certain supernatural stories also made their way into modern times, passed on from generation to generation, about extraordinary powers displayed by certain religious figures in the past. They talked about Christian monks, Muslim saints and the extraordinary doings of yogis. From walking on water and through fire, to flying and seeing things in great distance without actually being there…
But nobody was able to bring any sound explanation to any of this… Some said it was God’s disposition, others explained it as the divine act of whatever powerful being they believed in.
Consumed by all this philosophical thought Jem was suddenly startled by Alph’s voice:
“In Essence, Jem!”
“Uh… Hello Alph” Jem said as he jumped up to greet his guest.
Alph had suddenly appeared on Jem’s right side; he looked exactly as he did the night before.
Jem immediately called out to his wife:
“Gonul!.. Our guest is here!”
“I’m coming!”
Alph’s greeting had struck Jem’s curiosity from the night before too:
“You say ‘In Essence’ when greeting us. What does this mean?” he asked while waiting for Gonul to join them.
“We say this as a reminder to ourselves that the unit we are greeting is actually present in our very own essence. In other words it points to the reality that there is no separation in existence as all existence is interconnected. I exist in your essence just as you exist in mine. We say this when two units of existence either come together or depart, to remember the truth that we are neither joining nor parting as we are always together.”
“Hmm… But… You had said that your kind is ‘pure intellect’ while we humans are a mixture of flesh, bone and spirit… So, how can we all be one in essence?”
Jem’s question had given Alph relief as though this was exactly the point Alph wanted to make. Just then Gonul walked in and greeted Alph:
“Good to have you here again!”
“Good to be here,” Alph replied with a smile and continued speaking with Jem:
“What do you know yourself as? As the amalgamation of flesh, bones and spirit, right?”
“Well, yeah… This is what we’ve been told for centuries anyway.”
“So, perhaps we can say this is the conditioning of those who came before you, then?”
“I guess we can, in a sense…”