On a stone terrace above a quiet lake at Nishan, where the 2026 Nishan Forum on World Civilizations gathers the world this year, five sages from five civilizations — Confucius, Socrates, Ibn Sina, Tagore and Wangari Maathai — walk in from opposite sides of the terrace and come to rest in a single line. Each greets in the way their own tradition taught them: the Chinese bowing salute, a hand pressed over the heart, the Persian salam, namaste. Then five shafts of golden light rise from beside them, climb into the sky, and merge into one radiant sphere hanging above the water. Different gestures, one light — five civilizations solving the same issue: how to live together. That is the question the 2026 Nishan Forum on World Civilizations has come together to ask.