26. The name, part 3.

The girl continued staring at him.

"Once I was a man who felt every sensation as agony," he said. "Even eating, even a caress, was pain to him."

She didn't move.

"Everyone is like this. We wrap ourselves in delusion. But if you let yourself feel what you are really feeling, you experience the pain that all life is made of. Pleasure is a mitigating illusion. Only the pain is true."

At last she spoke. "My name...'Nan.' It's short for 'Ananda.' I told you. Hippies."

He smiled.