Chapter 406: Extra Chapter: Tea Party

Extra Chapter: Tea Party

"What do you think our world is like?"

"Good question." Lei Mengde moved his chair closer to the fireplace, scooped sugar and cinnamon with a spoon, and added them to the boiling sheep's milk.

Back in Dunling, he had never been very interested in such warming drinks. Perhaps having formally entered middle age, with outdoor activities decreasing day by day, combined with the increasingly cold weather recently, his habits had gradually changed.

Sweetness, calories, and a touch of just-right psychological comfort could activate the body and mind, and help cope better with a topic that would not end anytime soon.

"This must be told from the beginning of creation.

"Before all existence, there was only the Heavenly Father—formless, eternal, full of wisdom. He used no materials, relied on no hands, and needed no tools; He created all things with mere words.

"The Lord said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. This light was not sunlight, but the manifestation of the Lord, marking the first moment of time. From this, order was born from chaos; day and night separated, time flowed, the world was divided into upper and lower; above was the dome, the waters below receded, revealing the land.

"The Lord also set up luminaries in the dome, the great ones to govern the day, the small ones to govern the night, and countless stars arranged, moving along fixed paths, embodying eternal rhythms.

"With the world having basic rules, the Lord commanded the earth to bring forth living creatures; grass, trees, birds, and beasts would arise according to their kinds, each placed in its corresponding realm, filling the sky, the ocean, and the land.

"Thus, all things were interdependent, the order of the world was perfected, but one question remained: who would reflect His wisdom and share His joy?

"So the Lord, in His own image, shaped man from the earth's soil and dust, blew breath into his mouth and nose, and he became spiritual, able to think and create.

"Therefore, man is different from other living beings; he is the product of the union of upper and lower. The soul naturally tends upward, returning to the Heavenly Father, while the body is destined downward, returning to matter.

"This also explains why those addicted to desires find it hard to ascend to Heaven, for sensory desires originate from the body, an extension of its downward nature. Submitting to it causes the soul's tendency to ascend to Heaven to be obscured by the downward tendency, preventing return to the source, which is the Lord."

He lifted the sheep's milk pot from the fire, holding the handle still warm, and poured it into each cup in turn. Steam rose from the rims, carrying a slightly gamey, spicy-sweet scent, like burning wood chips in the air.

Blowing away the steam and taking a shallow sip, he suddenly changed the subject. "Similarly, attachment to life and the attempt to preserve life also belong to a kind of 'physical obsession'."

"Alleviating pain and providing care is a duty. But excessive attachment to physical survival, driven by fear, pride, or obsession, forcibly preserving life in ways that defy nature, instead prevents the spirit from returning to its origin; it is crossing the Lord's will to test His power."

These words seemed to imply something specific; it appeared that amidst busy work, the abbot of the monastery had not lost his sensitivity, still noticing certain matters not meant for the table.

But there was nothing strange about that.

A priest nearing death had recovered, witnessed by many monks and believers; this should have been recognized as a miracle and reported for promotion, yet it was quietly passed over.

All participants kept a low profile; whose order it was needed no saying.

Combined with the recent baseless relocation of the laboratory and movement of supplies, it was hard not to guess there was something wrong inside.

"If the Heavenly Father calls, and He does not wish me to succeed in healing, I could never have known the method." The doctor, rarely, became interested in theological debate, or rather, he too was troubled by similar questions, trying to find an answer. "Since the method is in my hands yet cannot be used, why did the Heavenly Father make me know it?"

"Perhaps what I do and say actually aligns with some will in the unseen?"

The assistant nodded deeply in agreement. His experiences since participating in medical work had given him a great sense of achievement; he had also witnessed firsthand many patients deemed hopeless improving through persistence, making it hard for him to agree with an attitude of letting nature take its course.

"Reason is a lamp, not the road." Lei Mengde refuted without hesitation, whether due to deep grounding in scripture or having prepared the draft long ago.

"A lamp distinguishes no good or evil; it only teaches you to see, not where to go. Like carrying a lantern at night, seeing more and further does not mean you should choose your own destination; we must still proceed on the road given by the Lord.

"If one takes the lamp as the master, relying on one's own tiny light to deviate from the road, one will still be lost in the darkness.

"Those with the brightest light are most prone to this error. Mo Lisen was just like that, trusting his own views too much, believing the road was not protecting him but restricting him, so he walked toward the result he least wanted to see."

Having spent a long time together, he no longer fluctuated when faith was questioned, only calmly stating his views.

In fact, similar debates had existed for a long time; one could even guess what the other would say next.

As expected.

The doctor eagerly raised that key question: "But how do we know which choice is the road given by the Heavenly Father?"

"The Lord's will does not often manifest, but traces remain. If you acknowledge your actions arise from goodwill, give people dignity, and bring light, then you are walking on the right path."

"Is this not too subjective?"

The answer to the question was also prepared: "Spirituality is the Lord's breath; therefore, though man is limited, he naturally possesses the ability to distinguish good from evil. Turn inward, and you will naturally hear His voice.

"Even if a person has not been baptized or entered a church, if he can still do good, that undoubtedly shows the righteousness and reason of God live within him, only not yet fully recognized."

"That is to say... you believe there is a natural morality, or rather order, existing within all things, originally 'good', belonging to a basic worldview?"

"Yes." Lei Mengde affirmed this statement with slight hesitation. "Otherwise, what do you think?"

"On this point... at least on this point, I agree; the judgment of right and wrong ultimately rests on one's cognition of the world." Kraft held his cup, watching the milky white liquid surface slowly cool, covered by a solidified film.

The topic was drawn back to the starting point; Lei Mengde finally vaguely realized that today's chat was not a whim, but that Kraft had something to say.

Just as many who came to the church did not need faith itself, but wanted answers within faith.

"If it were half a year ago, I might have said strange things, like the earth is a sphere, stars are suns farther away, and so on. Anyway, the Church actually didn't care much about one or two madmen popping up occasionally, as long as they didn't loudly proclaim these views."

Bringing up somewhat unrelated matters was usually a setup for truly effective content.

Lei Mengde suppressed his desire to debate, fell silent, and did what a clergyman most often does—listen.

"But now, I believe the Holy Scripture is correct, perhaps even closer to the essence.

"The world has levels, divisible into upper and lower, but the 'upper' is not above our heads, and the 'lower' is not beneath our feet.

"The latter is material, real, perceptible by the senses; the former is a kind of... metaphysical existence, a place, a concept, even more ethereal than spirit or spirituality. Our cognition of it is merely a projection of one of its aspects in consciousness."

"Have your recent studies of doctrine been remarkably fruitful?" It was hard to imagine such speculation coming from someone whose bookshelf held Holy Scriptures that were nine-tenths new.

"No, no, no, but right here, there is a small disagreement between us." Kraft shattered Lei Mengde's fantasy.

"The classics believe the distinction between upper and lower originates from the Heavenly Father's creation, essentially the result of a will, whereas I believe upper and lower are innate; at least, so far, we do not know if a will created this situation."

"Sounds like eternalism?" Lei Mengde commented. "There was such thought within the church before, believing God is not the creator but the eternal structure of the world; now it belongs to heresy."

"But within 'upper' and 'lower' there exists will; more accurately, wills exist separately." The narrator continued expressing his views, becoming increasingly fluent and absurd.

"Not personified wills; perhaps expressing them as 'tendencies' is more reasonable, influences projected by certain extremely vast things. They are not the entirety of upper and lower, but for us tiny life forms in the middle, calling them the whole world is no great problem, just as a pond is equivalent to everything for fish living within it.

"These two wills have no goodwill toward us or anything; of course, they are even less capable of malice. It is like you and a stranger bumping into each other full-force and rolling together into a stinking ditch, both searching for stepping stones to climb back out.

"We—unfortunately—are that disposable stepping stone. Because we possess both body and spirit, we are suitable for both upward and downward.

"Specifically, we do not know how long it will take, but as the power they can mobilize increases, it will only get faster.

"Now, if you hold up a lamp and see such a scene, which direction would you choose?"