So many people speak of paradise in another word of eternal beautiful summer or a congregation of their family forced to feel a hollow and unrealistic happiness forever like they are eternally high on drugs. My image of paradise is this world we have now being at peace with love and respect even for people who are foreign to us and to each other. My paradise is a personal library of ancient knowledge where I can invite one or two worthy mortal friends or lovers to read quietly and and be amazed at the revelations of truth that humankind has recorded and stored away for centuries, even millenia on pages of the world sacrificed for the sake of knowledge. Vellum pages from the skin of cattle and paper from the wood of trees. These temporary sacrifices to knowledge in books for long-lasting wisdom and information that can save empires from collapse. To me, paradise is a state that can be accomplished in this world. To me, I can die in paradise in a chair remembering my enlightenment.