For your thoughts...

Before I start the story, I would like all of to ask all of you reading this, to ponder: "If I could grant you one wish, what would you wish for?" Think about this before continue reading.

PARABLE WITH THE WISHING GAME

There was a group of five children. They were playing the wishing game. It goes like this: " If I could grant you one wish, any wish, what would you wish for?"
In this game, the first child said: "If I have a wish, I would wish for an ice-cream." As a small child, he would like an ice-cream as it was a hot day.
The second child, having heard the first child?Ts wish, said: "If I have a wish, I would wish for an ice cream factory. Having an ice-cream factory, I can have ice-cream whenever I wanted." As soon as the second child said that, the first child thought: "How stupid I was and how clever the second child was. If only I could have that wish again."
The third child did even better than the second child. The third child said, "If I have a wish, I would wish for a billion dollars. With a billion dollars, I could have an ice-cream factory, a candy factory, a fish and chip shop and a host of many other things. So with this, I could have an ice cream or a candy or anything else whenever I want. I would be very happy indeed with a billion dollar".
However the forth child was even smarter. He said, "If I had one wish, I would wish for three wishes. In my first wish, I would wish for an ice cream factory. In my second wish, I would wish for a billion dollars. In my third wish, I will ask for three more wishes. So whenever I think about what I want, I could have it. As such, I could keep on going, asking for infinite number of wishes." The first three children thought, "That is perfection. There is no way anyone can do better than that."
However the fifth child did beat the rest. He asked for one wish which was more profound; that was able to give him more happiness than that forth child, who has infinite number of wishes. He said, "If I have one wish, I wish that I would never ever need anymore wishes. I wish that I could be content with what I havê?"

In our world, we always aspire to be that forth child. We want to be billionaires. So whenever we have a wish, we can always get that wish. We always want to be able to go wherever we want; to experience whatever we want. In a way, we want to have so much money, so much power that whenever we have a wish, we can get it straightaway. We always like to aspire to be the forth child. But think about it. Each time when we wish for something, it means we are not happy with what we have. We are not content. We always want something new. Sometimes we want things to be this way, or things to be that way. And when things doesn?Tt go our way, we say, "this shouldn?Tt be this way", or "things shouldn?Tt be that way". But is it ever going to be possible for all our wishes to come true? Has there ever been a person in the history of mankind in which all his/her wishes did come true? Why do we need put ourself into this prison of sadness, guilt and frustration whenever something we wish for doesn?Tt come true? At times, we punish ourself unnecessarily, denying ourself freedom and happiness because things don?Tt go as we wish. We feel sad when we do have that freedom of choice not to be sad just simply by being content with what we have. So next time before you enslave yourself when things don?Tt go as you wish, ask yourself: "Is it possible for things to always be as I wish?" By then you will know that the answer is "no"; and you will stop the fight with reality, stop the fighting inside your heart and most importantly, stop the losing battle with truth, with the Dhamma.

Actually, I went *****ch length to tell this story just to illustrate the meaning in second line of the Dhammapada verse 204:
Health is the greatest of gifts;
Contentment is the highest wealth;
Trust is the best of relationships;
Nirvana is the highest happiness.
~Dhammapada verse 204




Some say YES, some say NO, and I say... WHATEVER.

what a nice and meaningful story !

Dimi