I just wanted to say that I really liked the ambience. It's contemplative. It's filled with little lessons and teachings, with peaceful imagery, and calm user interaction. It all works very well together.
Most idle games are built around a central combat system, so they're literally destructive. I loved how your encounters are always building up to something positive instead (like helping someone, or appreciative nature). The encounters are *constructive*. It's a nice change from the status quo.
Along those same lines: most games would have core attributes that would each serve a different purpose (e.g. strength increases the damage you deal, and constitution increases the damage you can receive). In your game, the four abidings are all essentially interchangeable: they are all equally important, and they are all equally necessary for solving encounters. You can temporarily boost one of the abidings, but it returns to its equilibrium value. The abidings are all more-or-less balanced by the end. I felt there was a lesson there. At any rate, it works very well with the overall theme of the middle way, and harmonious balance.
I also really liked how the Effort bar fills up like a slowly beating heart. It keeps a regular rhythm that never changes or stops. It keeps beating from one encounter to the next, and remains unchanged even when you're at home resting. I've never seen a game do anything like this, and it's *brilliant*. The rhythm of the Effort bar creates a calm, reassuring feeling that is almost meditative. I *really* liked it.
I understand that the Effort does replenish somewhat faster by the end of the game. But the change was gradual, and I didn't really notice it. To me, it felt like a regular heartbeat. It wasn't *really* necessary to make it beat faster, because the level-ups were accomplished in a different way: the impact changes as you level up (e.g. you replenish more energy with each completion as you level up). That is enough.
Anyway! It all fits together nicely: the message, the visuals, and the game play. I thought it was all very well done.