The One and Only One Wish

(A)The three wishes of a Buddhist practitioner

One day, a highly realized Buddhist practitioner had come across Aladdin who granted him three wishes. The practitioner immediately made three wishes without any thinking. Hearing the practitioner’s wishes, Aladdin stood respectfully in front of him with his hands clasped together to praise him, “Practitioner, the three wishes you’ve just made are all for sentient beings. You’re highly respected and admired.” The practitioner then said, “If my third wish I’d made was to ask for three more wishes, would you have thought that I was too greedy?  Ha-ha.” “No,” Aladdin answered, “I’ve attained the ‘mind-penetrating power’(direct knowing) that enables me to look into your innermost being and distinguishes whether you’re greedy or not!  Suppose your third wish made is to ask for another three wishes and again, your second third-wish is to ask for another three wishes and so on, I’ll certainly allow you to do so. It’s because I’ve known you so well that I’m sure you’ll make all the wishes solely for the need of sentient beings. In fact, it’s too troublesome to give you wishes like that, so from now on, I allow you to have infinite wishes. I, Aladdin hereby promise to shield and sustain you so that you can have all sorts of convenience.” Aladdin disappeared instantly after that.

Even so, the practitioner was not influenced by the presence of Aladdin; he kept on with his cultivation as usual. Time passed, on a day after many years, the practitioner suddenly thought of Aladdin and immediately Aladdin appeared. The practitioner said, “Aladdin, you’ve helped me so much, but I still have no idea on how to express my gratitude to you. Let’s make it like this, please tell me your wish and see if I can achieve it for you.” Aladdin answered with a smile, “I’ve got only one wish which is easier ‘said’ than ‘done’. I hope that the wisdom life of Buddhism can be continued forever and ever.”

After a few more decades, Aladdin had fulfilled innumerable wishes for the practitioner. Nevertheless, the practitioner felt that he had not yet been able to achieve Aladdin’s only wish completely!  From then on, the practitioner persisted in working this great mission ── to develop and expand Buddhism so that the wisdom life of Buddhism can be continued forever. This is also the one and only one wish of the practitioner.

Note: Aladdin is a metaphor for a Dharmapala(dharma protector) of Vajrayana.

 

(B)The three wishes of a sentient being

An old man who had accumulated some virtuous roots was serendipitous enough to encounter Aladdin and likewise, Aladdin granted him three wishes. Yet, the old man did not believe that the story of ‘Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp’ was really true, so he simply blurted out, “I wish I could have a car, I wish I could win a first prize.” Aladdin answered, “That’s easy.” More than a month later, the old man received a letter from a charitable organization informing him that he had got the first prize in their lucky draw and the prize was a Honda five-seat sedan. He then started to believe that Aladdin had really got the magic power to make his wishes come true.

Having experienced such an adventure, the old man was not excited at all. Instead, he was very annoyed and thought regrettably, “Why hadn’t I thought thoroughly before I blurted out two such stupid wishes?  I should have identified that I would like a Rolls Royce motor car and proclaimed that the first prize should be a huge jackpot of Mark Six (a lottery game organized by the Hong Kong Jockey Club)!  Now, I’ve got only one wish left, shall I ask for wealth?  Reputation?  Health and longevity?  Or something else?  It would be great if wishes were endless!”
The old man suddenly hit upon an idea, he asked Aladdin, “Is it true that you can achieve whatever wish I make?”
“Certainly,” replied Aladdin.

The old man then said, “At first, my third wish is ── I can have three more wishes. Then, my third wish for the second time is to ask you to give me three more wishes again. However, I think this will be too wearying, so my third wish now is very simple, I’d like to be you. You won’t regret to make my wish comes true, will you?  Ha-ha!”
“No, I won’t. I will by all means fulfill your wish,” answered Aladdin sternly. Looking at this insatiably avaricious old man, Aladdin felt he was stupid, pitiful. However, Aladdin had to keep promise to fulfill the old man’s wish. All Aladdin could do at the moment was to hope that the old man would be awakened one day.

A week later, the old man died of acute pneumonia. His wisp of wondering spirit met Aladdin and he quickly asked, “Why did I die all of a sudden?”
Aladdin responded, “Oh!  It’s the most rapid way to make you become me. I’m a spectre, hence, to become me, you can’t be a human anymore!  You’re me now, congratulations!”

Hearing the explanation from Aladdin, the old man’s spirit was comforted and he thought joyfully, “It’s nice, as I’m a fairy now; I can always have whatever I like!  I now hope that I can own a big house.” Momentary, the old man’s spirit found that he was sitting in a fairy-palace.
He then said, “I now hope that there’re lots of delicious foods.” In an instant, the most excellent and tasty food appeared in front of him.
He then continued to make other wishes, “I’d like to have pavilions, terraces and elegant buildings.” “I want diamonds and gold.” “I hope to have fame and popularity so that a lot of people will come to interview me.”
Feeling that he was still in lack of something, the old man kept on saying, “My wish now is to be served by ten beautiful ladies.” In a flash, ten pretty and charming ladies with gracefully slender figures appeared before the old man.

Suddenly, the old man saw an old guy kneeing at the centre of the palace, he then asked the old guy, “When did you enter the palace?”
The old guy answered, “I’ve been kneeing here all the time!”
The old man kept asking, “What’s your purpose of coming here?”
The old guy said, “I hope you can give me a lot of wishes.”
The old man laughed loudly and said, “Give you a lot of wishes?  Ha-ha, my own wishes have not yet been fulfilled, how come I can give you lots of wishes!  No to mention three wishes, in fact, it’s impossible for me to give you even one!”

Before the laughter of the old man died down, the palace turned into a jail, the delicious food became faeces, the pavilions, terraces and elegant buildings changed to a mountain of swords and a forest of sabres(the most ruthless punishment), the diamonds and gold turned into jagged rocks, the guests became a gang of noisy and annoying criminals and the ten beautiful ladies turned into ten ghost attendants.

The old man exclaimed, “Help me, Aladdin, help me, Aladdin!”
Aladdin appeared in front of the old man in a flash and said, “You’ve become me now, so you can’t rely on me to save you anymore. We, members of the Aladdin’s family are all practising the Bodhisattva Path, so we would only consider the need of the others but never have plans for ourselves. I’m afraid you can only depend on you yourself for the rescue.”

The old man said urgently, “There’s an old guy coming to ask for wishes from me just now, I’d like to fulfill his request!”
Aladdin said, “It’s too late, you’re now situated in the Hell and have lost the magic power of granting wishes. Moreover, you don’t have to give any wishes to the old guy because he’s in the same situation as you and is also behind bars at the moment!”
The old man tried his very best to look around the ash-filled Hell to look for the old guy, but he was in vain. He then asked Aladdin, “Where’s he now?”
Aladdin answered, “He’s in your body!”
The old man searched around himself and said, “No, I can’t see him.”
Aladdin answered, “Of course you can’t see him. In fact, that old guy is your ‘heart’; he’s your ‘selfishness’.”

Postscript:
Every person has his own wish: Buddhist practitioners reserve all their wishes for the needs of sentient beings while common people will indifferently make wishes solely for themselves. In their complicated inner world, they have infinite desires which can never be completely fulfilled. They are like the old man in the story who hope that the ‘wishes’ granted can be endless and all of them will come true one after the other successively. Furthermore, the case that the old man dreamt to be Aladdin is similar to those ignorant and incompetent disciples who are so arrogant and conceited that they wish to attain equivalent cultivation as their Guru in a year, a month or even within a week!

There is no Aladdin in reality, so worldly sentient beings turn to their Guru, Buddha and Bodhisattva to make their wishes. They pray for the compassionate divine of the Guru, Buddha and Bodhisattva to achieve perfectly their wishes. To sentient beings, the Guru is a person with flesh and blood and so he is relatively easier to get in contact with and communicate. Thus, they think that the Guru can understand their needs, they then ask for the Guru’s blessings to achieve their wishes of the heart. However, the wishes made are merely desires that sentient beings hope to beg for themselves, all of them have nothing to do with the wisdom life of Buddhism.

In addition, when encountering with awkward situations, many disciples refuse to envisage the crux of the problems to find possible solutions themselves. Instead, they think that once the Guru has got known of their situations, their problems will be handled by the Guru and all of them will readily be solved. Everything goes smoothly and it is always successful in this way. As a result, sentient beings depend upon the Guru’s blessings as well as aid on every matter regardless of their importance, they allow themselves to make the Guru fulfills their countless wishes. When we seek refuge from our Guru, do we aim at learning Supreme Tantric-dharma from him or viewing him as an omnipotent machine that can achieve wishes?  Sentient beings have gone through various consultations and studying under superiors to seek for the best teacher as well as a possession of certain meritorious rewards before they are able to gain a chance to rely on an enlightened Guru. By the time they succeed in depending on the most suitable Guru, they, however, look forward to unloading their unwanted burdens to him. Is it a proper way to treat your Guru like this?  As a Guru, he is probably not stingy to fulfill dreams for his disciples. Yet, let us think in this way: If the Guru has a hundred disciples and each of them makes a wish, there will be a total of one hundred wishes. Similarly, when there are one thousand disciples, there will be altogether one thousand wishes. How much precious time does the Guru need to spend on achieving his disciples’ dreams?  Will the disciples be spoiled?  When the Guru is kept constantly on the run of all these worldly matters, how could he spare any time to develop and expand Buddhism?

Hence, being a disciple, please treasure your Guru, put away all your selfish desires and learn to take care of yourself. According to one of the stanzas in《50 Stanzas on Devotion to the Guru》, “Never disturb your Guru’s mind to make him vexed.” Disciples should inquire the Guru questions on how to benefit sentient beings or encounter problems in Buddha dharma and cultivate diligently. In this way, disciples can requite the Guru’s kindness and give positive feedbacks on his teaching. This also serves a way for disciples to help the Guru to achieve his one and only one wish, that is, to do as it is said in another stanza of《50 Stanzas on Devotion to the Guru》, “Always shield and sustain your Guru’s deep-sworn vow.”