This is the chat that Inquisitive Monk had with Wishful Monk in the Monastery breakfast room this morning. Everyone was present.
Inquisitive Monk: “You are a monk and yet wishful?”
Wishful Monk: “Yes.”
Inquisitive Monk: “Do you wish to fly?”
Wishful Monk: “For that I can be reborn a bird.”
Inquisitive Monk: “Do you wish to walk on water?”
Wishful Monk: “I can easily take a boat.”
Inquisitive Monk: “Do you wish to feel no hunger?”
Wishful Monk: “Buddha said it’s not helpful.”
Inquisitive Monk: “Do you want to live forever?”
Wishful Monk: “What difference will that make?”
Inquisitive Monk: “Do you wish to be Sensei?”
Wishful Monk: “I will become him anyway.”
Inquisitive Monk knew this was the wrong approach. He bowed to Wishful Monk and continued, “What do you wish for?”
Wishful Monk bowed to Inquisitive Monk and replied, “To have no wish at all.”
Sensei clapped three times, smiled and said, “To try and be ‘wishless’ is the greatest meditation of them all. Even to wish that you do not want a wish is still wishing. Once you overcome that, you will be a Buddha.”
*****
