“Entering the Palace”
“All six of the new arrivals felt as if they had been born afresh, had left behind the suffering and ignorance of the world through which they had formerly moved. Here was a new start, a chance to live in a manner that accorded with their finest impulses, that was attuned to the love in their hearts and the peace and creativity in their minds. They wandered down the road taking in the loveliness of their surroundings. The buildings were not only beautiful in themselves but fit in perfectly with their surroundings. They seemed almost to be growing up out of the landscape like organic products of the soil. Many of the trees were species the friends had never before encountered. Lush flowers dangled from their branches, panicles in lavender and cymes in scarlet. Delicate mauve flowers sporadically dotted a small plat of garden. Lush crimson ones hung like ethereal jewels from a bush that had climbed up the side of a white wall.” (from “Paalce of Perfect Wisdom”)