Three Types of Wishes

Aladdin owns a magical power that enables one to achieve the wishes of the fated people. However, no one can ever predict when Aladdin would arrive to grant one the wish. Thus, the sudden arrival of Aladdin could always bring out the hidden, innermost desires of mankind: generally they are none other than beauty, wealth and power……

(A) Beauty
After marrying a beautiful lady as his imperial concubine, the King snubbed the Queen. This made the Queen very depressed. She was so sad that tears bathed her cheeks from morning till night, day after day. One day, when the Queen was sauntering around the garden, she inadvertently went near the riverside. Seeing her own reflection in the water, she was suddenly filled with sorrow. As she was no longer cosseted by the King, she found it meaningless to continue living in the world. At the instant when the broken-hearted Queen attempted to jump into the river to commit suicide, Aladdin appeared just-in-time under the drive of the Queen’s blessed virtue, he warned the Queen, “Life is precious, Queen, ‘look before you leap,’ please.”

Feeling that life was no longer loveable and under such an upset mood, the Queen was not scared to hear a voice talking to her in the air, but simply answered, “I’m very unhappy. Can you give me a wish so that I won’t be vexed anymore?”
“If you’re given a wish, are you sure you’ll be happy?” asked Aladdin.
The Queen murmured to herself, “If the King cossets me alone, I’ll certainly be happy.”
“OK!  I hereby give you a wish, what’d you like to have?”
Thinking of the King and his imperial concubines in the Palace, the Queen was filled with jealousy in her mind. Rather unexpectedly, she made a vicious wish , “I hope that all women in the Palace will become ugly except me so that I’ll be the prettiest.”

A week later, something strange happened in the Palace. All imperial concubines and maids were infected with a strange disease; their skin was eroded by bacteria that made them look very ugly. Their faces were full of typhus, their skin was inflamed and festered. All doctors were at a loss on how to cure the sickness. The King stepped back from the ugly faces of his concubines and returned to the Queen. He was surprised to find that the Queen was unaffected by the disease, she was safe and sound!  Compared with all the other ugly-looking concubines, the King praised wholeheartedly, “Queen, you’re the most beautiful lady.” The Queen felt very happy.

A year later, the Queen gave birth to a little Princess delightedly. However, when the Queen saw her little Princess, she was so scared that she nearly fainted. Adding to her mottled face, the little Princess had her eyes and nose fused together that made her look extremely ugly. When the King saw the little Princess, he immediately ordered the imperial bodyguards to take her away. Seeing that her little Princess had gone far away, the Queen cried sadly.
“Why does my Princess look so ugly?  Why doesn’t she look like me?” thought the Queen bitterly.

She forgot about the wish she had ever made to Aladdin ── she had wished that all the females in the Palace would look ugly so that she would be the most beautiful. Now, the Queen’s wish had really come true, she became the prettiest woman in the Palace. Nevertheless, her malicious curse was also confirmed on her daughter, do you think she could be happy?

(B) Wealth
Granny was a gentle and kindhearted woman who had married to a poor husband. Even though life was plain and poor, she had never grumbled any complaints. On the other hand, she valued and respected her spouse’s opinions in all matters. One day, granny came across Aladdin and was granted a wish. She requested Aladdin if she could discuss the wish with her husband before she made any decision, Aladdin promised her gladly. Discussing the wish with her husband, granny considered that they were getting old and were frequently suffered from sickness, so she thought that it would be good to wish for healthy and strong bodies for both of them from Aladdin. However, her husband did not agree with her, he thought that wealth was more important than anything else. “Having lived for more than half of our life spans, we’ve got no idea how abalones, sea cucumbers, shark’s fins and fish maws look and taste like. Don’t you want to try having beautiful dresses and nice food?  Besides, when we have a lot of money, we can buy all sorts of rare and precious medicinal herbs to nourish our bodies and build up our health. Even if we’re really sick, we can afford to consult famous doctors to cure our sickness. With wealth, we don’t have to worry that we’re not having good health!” Granny followed the logic of her husband and agreed that it sounded reasonable.

“We would like to have money, a lot of money so as to be the richest,” wished both of them together.
“Will it be happy to have a lot of money?” asked Aladdin.
“Certainly,” answered the old man quickly, “As a proverb goes ‘if you have money, you can make the devil push the millstone for you.’ Owning a lot of money, one can buy whatever one likes. It’s so happy like that!”
“However, could happiness be bought with money?” asked Aladdin earnestly.
“Hey!  Happiness comes naturally with wealth, it doesn’t need to be bought, does it?” responded the old man confidently.
Looking at their delighted faces, Aladdin was speechless and left silently.

One month later, the old couple won a jackpot and was rewarded a huge sum of money. They bought a big house, hired a lot of servants, dripped in gold and silver and hosted banquets days and nights. There was always a large group of people around them and the house was filled with noise and excitement every day, the old couple seemed to enjoy their new lives very much. They led the same life day after day and this lasted for a few months before granny realized that there was something wrong ── her husband seldom stayed at home recently. Under the instigation of her friends, granny employed a private detective to trace her husband’s whereabouts and it was reported that the old man was having an extra-marital affair!

Granny was furious with this and she demanded her husband to leave his mistress, but the old man refused. He thought that his young and pretty mistress was much better than his aged wife. From then on, the old man was rarely at home, leaving granny alone in the big house. Granny was so sad that she lost the mood of having fun and thus there were neither banquets nor guests any more, but only granny sighed and cried alone at her home. Granny witnessed sadness and unhappiness on an unprecedented scale .

A few months later, the old man was diagnosed to suffer from pneumonia, yet no doctors could heal him. At the moment, he remembered his wife, who could not only bury the old quarrels, but was also eager to spend all of their wealth to hire famous doctors to cure him. Nonetheless, the old man was incurably ill and died eventually. Granny was grieved over her husband’s death and cried her heart out. Suddenly, she recalled that Aladdin had once asked them, “Can money buy happiness?” and she also remembered her husband’s answer, “With money, one’ll certainly be happy.”

No!  The truth was not like this. Indeed, money could not repurchase one’s life, nor could it buy one’s youthfulness back. It could not refill the void in one’s soul either!  “Why didn’t I choose health instead of wealth at the very beginning?” Granny blamed herself sadly with teardrops as big as beans kept rushing down in a torrent; nevertheless, they could not wash away her grief and mourning……

(C) Power
As the present manager was going to retire in March, the boss decided to search for his successor among his employees. Ah Kuen, who was the assistant manager, had already treated the position of the manager as something grabbed in his hands for long. However, it was widely rumoured recently that there was a great probability for the manager’s nephew to take over the manager’s seat. Ah Kuen was very depressed and sighed all the time. He complained that even though his parents had given him a good name ── Kuen, which meant ‘power’ in Chinese, he did not grasp any power in reality.
“It’ll be excellent if I can be the manager and have immeasurable power in hand!  Oh my Heaven, I’ve been running for the position for a long time, but now a man out of the blue appears (remark: it means an unexpected event happenes that somebody tries to poke one’s nose into the matter ). Oh!  Isn’t there any chance that I, Ah Kuen, can really get the power?  When will it be?”

“Suppose you become the manager and have the power, will you be happy then?” said a voice at the back, “I’m Aladdin and I come to fulfill your wish. Please don’t blame everyone and everything but yourself.”
Ah Kuen looked around to search for the source of the sound; yet, his colleagues were all immersing their heads and concentrating themselves on their work as usual. “It’s only an illusion just now, but if I’m really granted with the power, I’ll surely be very happy,” thought Ah Kuen.

In March, Ah Kuen was really promoted to be the manager. He always thought that the working attitude of the previous manager was too slack, causing a low working efficiency. Hence, he decided to correct this old habit. In order to strive for a better manifestation, Ah Kuen ignored the opposition of his staff and abolished a number of employee’s benefits. Consequently, voices of grievances were heard from all of the staff.

Being too eager for quick success and instant benefit, Ah Kuen failed to understand the fact that the staff were spoiled by the previous manager and were unable to transform completely in such a short period of time. On the contrary, considering that he was not wrong, Ah Kuen thought that the staff had to follow his instructions strictly, violators would be fired immediately. All the staff felt indignant and none of them dared to speak out.

Ah Kuen always wore a solemn face to make himself look awe-inspiring. The staff thought that this new manager was repugnant and detestable as he had indiscriminately misused his power and authority. As a result, none of the staff dared to approach him except when dealing with official business. Even those few colleagues who used to be quite close with him started to drift apart from him. Gradually, Ah Kuen was isolated in the office, without any colleagues to go along with. He was thus aggravated with increasing psychological burden and pressure. In case when there was any dissatisfaction in his work, Ah Kuen would at once suspect that it was the result of the uncooperativeness of his colleagues who made mistakes deliberately to counter him. As a result, he got a mental stress and became terribly suspicious. To conclude, it was the power that drove Ah Kuen into an autocrat and became a target that was grudged by his colleagues. He then resulted in leading a lonely, worried, dreadful and miserable life that made him extremely suspicious as the Chinese idiom says, ‘mistakes the reflection of a bow in the wine cup for the shadow of a snake’( remark: it means one is extremely suspicious and have imaginary fears).

Postscript:
With the help of Aladdin, the Queen, granny and Ah Kuen all had their dreams fulfilled. However, they were not as happy as they had expected. All of them are not Buddhist practitioners, so the wishes they make are all about satisfying the selfish desires of themselves. These egoistic and self-interested wishes, yet, can never bring any peace in the mind and soul of the wish-makers. On the other hand, making selfish wishes can cause the falling of one’s real nature which consequently makes one go astray. There is a kind of people who like to put ‘the most superior’ in front of everything they do or possess. For instance, he/she wants to be the most beautiful, owns the highest authority, be the richest or the most outstanding etc. among all the people in the world. For a selfish and self-concerned sentient being, one will never understand that even if one is the most beautiful(handsome) person in the world, but owns a filthy evil character, one’s beautiful(handsome) appearance is entirely meaningless. Moreover, when everyone in the world looks ugly, then ‘ugliness’ becomes a norm in such circumstances as every person has the same ugly appearance!  On the contrary, pretty people will be regarded as ‘not of the same clan’; can such ‘different’ people lead a happy and healthy life in the general world?  Concerning the possession of power and authority, in case when it is wrongly applied, it will certainly accumulate karma as a consequence!  As for those having infinite riches who only focus on the pleasure and comfort of themselves, but lack the realization of the importance of doing charitable works to benefit sentient beings, what will they have in the end even if they are billionaires?  In fact, by the time when one is fulfilling one’s desires, one will involuntarily make evil causes and reap what one has sown with evil fruits. One is thus going to bear the sufferings from the evil conduct which eventually is, more a loss than gain. Besides, your meritorious rewards will surely be used up one day, irrespect the amount you have accumulated. As a conclusion, none of these possessions can lead to an liberation at the end.

Fortunate people are fated to come across Aladdin and are granted with a wish, most of them will wish to have blessed rewards for themselves. Among them, how many will possess the mind of Bodhi (the awakened) to make wishes for the beneficial of sentient beings?  Similarily, when destined disciples encounter their enlightened Guru, please do not only ask for meritorious rewards for one’s own benefits. One should grasp this precious chance to implore sincerely to the Guru for the teaching of Supreme Tantric Dharma so as to attain the mind of Bodhi. If one can move Aladdin (it implies Dharmapala of Vajrayana) one day, one will learn to make wishes for the benefits of sentient beings to save and liberate oneself as well as the others simultaneously.