Once a monk traveling in a land far
from home was surprised to see a lamp on the side
of the road and could not resist examining it
further. It was of foreign design with intricate
writing on the side in a language he did not
understand. Needing some form of some illumination
other than the candle in the room he had been
provided, he packed the lamp away for further use.
Getting back, he brought out the lamp and prepared
to add some oil. Try as he might, he could not
remove the top and knew now why someone had thrown
it away. It was nice for its ornamental use
possibly but he had little need for such
attachments. The writing on the side fascinated
him so he rubbed some of the dirt obscuring the
writing to find a genie suddenly appearing out of
the lamp in a column of smoke. Tall as a man but
only partly visible, the genie thanked the monk
for setting him free after a thousand years of
captivity. In gratitude for his rescue, he offered
the monk anything he desired and it would be
provided as soon as the words were spoken by his
new master.
The monk sat down to think long and
hard on the matter. Having renounced all worldly
things, he had little use of wealth and fame.
Though simple, his housing and food were already
provided as part of his devotion by the people in
the towns he passed through with the light he
taught and the healings he gave being thanks
enough. Any miracle working he could wish for
would be breaking his vows of poverty as would
sharing any wealth he got to take the people he
met out of their misery. These were simple people
who knew him and he was a simple man but wise in
the ways of his chosen path. His teachers had
shown to his satisfaction that this not the only
reality or even universe. He had come to an
understanding that everything he could conceive
was happening at that very moment in any one of an
infinite number of universes. Therefore, whatever
he was seeing and experiencing was what he was
supposed to see and experience. Any fears, worries
or stress were about things that were in alternate
universes or weren't what he wasn't experiencing
at that moment so therefore not part of his
current lessons. For him, everything was about the
now and the now is always perfect, even the
lessons that argue the opposite.
The genie’s magical powers gave him
the knowledge of the condition of the world and,
wanting to be free of his bottle, offered to stop
all wars and ease the suffering of mankind across
the world. Such wishes would leave in place a
paradise where humanity could learn in peace and
harmony to where they may even spread out among
the stars. The genie next suggested a review of
all the monk’s past lives through the Akashic
Records and thus increase his knowledge to
entirely new levels. He could escort him to
heavens only higher beings of great learning could
reach to experience the history of the world and
all worlds from enlightened eyes. To all the
offers and suggestions the genie put forth the
monk rejected, returning to the center of his
belief that if he was to know all of the knowledge
he sought before its time, it would undo the lives
of learning he gone through to achieve his current
level of growth. Feeling himself to be in a world
without limits already was where he felt the most
joy every second. He explained that in his life he
had found more than he could ever hope to have
from the inner peace he felt and thus had no
desire to be anyone’s master.
Having no other wishes to grant, the
monk offered instead that the genie grant just a
single wish. That one wish would be that the genie
would be free from the bottle for all time to
continue the path he had been on prior to his
imprisonment. The genie, who had spent a thousand
years waiting for this very moment and opportunity
suddenly began to question this dream come true.
What had led him to be put in the bottle in the
first place was a wish for unlimited power from
another genie in that same bottle without
understanding the eventual cost of that wish.
Great power was given but only to become the new
slave to the master of the bottle. The life he had
led prior to making that fateful wish had seemed
dull and empty without the hope to ever amount to
anything. He had no wish to return there after
seeing what could be possible in a life devoted to
the moment. The realization suddenly hit him and
he knew the answer. He thanked the monk for what
he was offering though he asked if the monk could
wish for two things instead of just the one. He
wished to be free of the bottle but he also wished
to follow the monk to begin a path that would one
day bring about the same peace and harmony he saw
in him. Recognizing the destiny that was calling,
the monk granted the genie’s two wishes and added
a third. He wished also for the genie to have a
robe similar to the one he was wearing. Thus
robed, the two set off on a path to highness that
would never end throughout their lives to
come.
In love, light, and wisdom as one, Russ and Karra.
