I was just an old man climbing the mountain pass. It had been a long day and my feet hurt. Every first day of the week, I made the climb to the summit to watch the sunrise.

  When I was younger, I read in a book that walking on a mountain trail once a week would work wonders for one’s health.

  So, I climbed step by step, passing a group of young people who were probably out to cut some wood. “Greetings, wise one,” they saluted, and I nodded in response. They respected me around here, I was some sort of guru.

  So. I climbed, my feet aching. Old bones making themselves known. Now that I was approaching the dusk of my life perhaps it was time to start watching sunsets instead of sunrises. I chuckled at my own foolishness and kept climbing.

  So, I climbed, my breath growing haggard but soon I saw the summit. Not much farther now. I reached it just in time. A few moments the first ray of light peeked at the world from behind the horizon. The beginning of a new day was always a wonder to me.

  Once again, I found myself reflecting on the purpose of everything—the universe, the duality of man. I always debating with myself in endless trains of thought with no real meaning. I burst into laughing at the memory of how people used to come to listen to my speeches, thinking me a wise man.

  I had done everything in my life: a prophet, a liar, a guide, a guru. I had spoken so much that I was surprised my mouth could still form words.

  The silence of the mountains calmed me as it always did. today was a special day. The day I celebrated the birth pf my 60th child. Right after my 70th birthday.

  I truly felt blessed by the heavens. I had so many wives in this life that I could barely remember them all. Gazing into the distance, I admired the trees and the sight of an eagle soaring in the sky, when suddenly, I understood.

  The world and everything in it, including myself, was governed by absolute laws. They permeated every fragment of reality: the way the birds flew, the nature of the air, the behavior of light; every detail followed a law. This was DAO!

  I was experiencing enlightenment , a moment that stretched on for what felt like centuries. As I absorbed more and more of these universal truths, my soul began to expand rapidly.

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  The truths were profound, each one a revelation carved into my being. With each truth absorbed, my soul swelled pushing against my physical form.

  A blinding pain surged through me, and I found myself unable to stop the process. Enlightenment was coming whether I wanted or not.

  My body could no longer contain the vastness, the pressure of my soul. I exploded, leaving nothing but a smear of blood and gore on the rocks. I was dead, just like that.

  All my life, I had been a fake guru, and now, when I finally touched enlightenment, I died in a gruesome way. Was this heavenly retribution?

  As I pondered my sudden death, I could feel my soul being drawn away by an invisible force into the vastness of the skies. As a man of culture and thought I always wondered about the secrets of the cosmos. Now I had a front seat, too bad I had to pay fir it with my life. For the very first time, I could see my home world from afar, a tiny marble suspended in the infinite void. Breathtaking!

  My soul continued being pulled by the invisible force though, and soon I found myself zapping through space at unimaginable speeds. I drifted past celestial bodies, planets shrouded in swirling clouds and stars burning with fiery intensity. I witnessed the grandeur of the universe unfold before me, until finally, I left the galaxy behind, propelled into the unknown depths of the Universe.

  My soul was pulled farther and farther. After a while the pull weakened and I started slowing down until I approached a huge beam of green light resembling a vast river. As I came closer, I could see the river of light was formed of millions of souls just like me.

  All of a sudden, a barrier of translucent yellow energy materialized between me and the river of souls.

  It turned out to be an entire bubble, like an empty glass sphere enveloping and trapping my soul.I stopped moving completely being now encased in the peculiar bubble. I felt powerless with no agency over my actions. Only my thoughts ran free, amazed by everything I have experienced. Afterlife was proving to be quite the entertaining experience so far. My contemplating was cut short when a vortex opened right beside me and dragged me in. I was again moving at high speeds drawn by another invisible force through what looked like a tunnel made of purple light. It ended as sudden as it started.

  I found myself face to face with a stoic man with a dark moustache and hair, seated at a desk with a massive book before him. Something changed, I had a body again. Judging by my hands it looked like my body when I was a bit younger, maybe in my twenties. I checked my surroundings. We are sitting on a floating cloud, and similar setups could be seen in the distance. An individual at the desk and some poor soul in front of them awaiting judgement.

  "You are such a headache," exclaimed the man with the moustache. Flipping through the book irritably, he continued, "You're the only mortal in the past trillion years to blow themselves up through an epiphany."

  “Who are you?“ I found myself asking.

  “Fair enough, I am a judge of the Courts of Death.“ Believing he had explained just enough, he went on:

  “As you probably recall, you just died. Since your soul is now as strong as a Hegemon’s , Fate sent you to join the river of the dead.“