Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Chris's Crazy Questions #1
Earthninja
WandererWest Australia Veteran
in Philosophy
Hi guys! I thought I would start a few threads in a sequence that aim at promoting some thought processes!
These are all open and it's really nice when you see what others think about these topics.
Sooo, here it is!
1 You are walking in a beautiful forest, a fairy lands on your shoulder and grants you three wishes. What are they?
1
Comments
The second two questions would depend on whether I could get the money I need with the first.
I'll never know, because I've read enough fairy tales to know nothing is free. That includes fairy wishes. So I'd try to resist the urge to play around with something so dangerous and tell the fairy to find someone else.
If I was walking in a beautiful forest on a salubrious day with a beautiful joy and a clear head and an eager heart, thus would I declare:
1) May any wish I make be in the best interests of everybody (i.e., be guided by wisdom and love)!
2) May I be granted three more wishes to use in future, including the ability to be granted even more as the occasion or need arose. (But always grounded in the desire, by degrees, to be a better person) —nay indeed, an Arahant: "incapable of transgression in regard to the nine encumbrances:
3) May my wishes always be pure and loving, no matter even if they sometimes be shortcuts or about certain creature comforts!
from AN 9:7; IV 370-71
Well to be quite honest, my first reaction would be a cause condition and effect one. "Um what type of mushrooms did I have for lunch today?... A bloody fairy's just landed on my shoulder....I must be tripping !"
I agree - I'd be asking the fairy to find someone else.
I would like to have my mind transferred to a cyborg, a nice version of the Terminator. Then I would do nice things like helping old ladies cross the road. "Hasta la vista, granny!".
I would also like a starship to explore the galaxy and an infinite supply of ice-cream.
I would ask for a pre-programmed portable brain-o-meter which would alert me with an audible-to-only-me signal that I'm about to think, say or do something so bloody stupid that it would be in my far, far better, best interests to seriously NOt think, say or do it....
I would like the ability to simply point at any person on the planet, and render them utterly incapable, ever again, of using any instrument, mechanism, device or accessory, which requires modern technological programming to make it work. This would mean that all and every item with a microchip or circuit board, would be rendered completely useless and ineffective in the moron's hands. The same skill could also be used on the technology itself. So I could be selective about which of the two I'd opt for.
I would like every self-appointed witty critic and cynic, who questions the said fairy's good intentions, or the huge benefits and possible advantages of carefully-thought-out wishes, to experience a dull shoulder-ache and frequent tinnitus - on that shoulder, and in that ear only, at the same time, each day corresponding to when the fairy first alighted on said shoulder, as a punishment for being such a rotten spoilsport and refusing to play the game.
The affliction would last ten times as long as the fairy sat there, and would vary in intensity, so as to be unpredictable and probably damn inconvenient, and a reminder that when someone proposes a light-hearted game, they don't become a wise-cracking smart-ass and spoil it.
^^^ [lobster quakes] You iz evil.
I like @Walker wishes. I may have heard of something similar ... somewhere ... maybe a little fairy deva whispered it ...
Three wishes, too many decisions. Maybe I could firstly wish for just one wish ...
May all be well ... something like that ...
You're probably right.
So:
1. May all beings be well.
2. Starship to explore the galaxy.
3. Limitless ice-cream.
Well alright then...keeping in mind @Federica's 'wishes',
a nav.vy for every occasion
I think we are getting there guys ...
... now how do we catch that wish granting jewel-fairy-deva?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cintamani
[lobster shrugs] ... wish I knew ...
She doesn't appear when sceptics are around.
^^^ I don't believe in skeptics or emptiness without form come to that ...
If we chant OM MANI PEME HUM, will the fairies come? I do believe in fairies. I do, I do!
A limitless supply of ice-cream would help with that.
Hot tip (well, maybe more like a cold tip
)
The best ice cream in the world is in Russia, sold in little paper cups by street vendors. It's an old recipe from the Soviet era (rumor has it that Khrushchev got the recipe from the Yanks on a visit to the US, but no one in the US has made it that way since the 50's, due to inflation raising the price of ingredients). It is not aerated (ice cream in the West is aerated to cheapen it--they're selling you air); it's solid cream, not powdered milk, skim milk and whey solids. Because it's solid cream, little sugar is needed; it gets its flavor from the cream, a subtle sweetness. The flavors are subtle, smooth.
Think of high cream content Swiss chocolate, vs. cheap Hershey's. US Ice cream manufacturers load up on candy- and cookie-type flavors, heavy on the sugar. Sugar is cheaper than cream, so the cream content was eliminated until "gourmet" ice cream came along, but even those brands still use a lot of sugar, and still use some skim milk.
This is worth the trip to St. Petersburg or Moscow to try. Just saying. It's important to get along with the Russians. Peaceful co-existence yields unexpected benefits.
"1 You are walking in a beautiful forest, a fairy lands on your shoulder and grants you three wishes. What are they?"
Well when I finally realise that I'm not tripping out on magic mushrooms and there really is a fairy sitting on my shoulder....
May you (fairy) be free from suffering( the continuing cycle of granting wishes to others) and may all your dreams come true....
What, no ice cream? You have one wish left, you've only used two...
.....And may @SpinyNorman and his gang of icecream lovers have a never ending supply of their favourite icecream on tap...
Hear, hear! Happy New Year, everybody!
It's patently obvious you have never tasted Italian ice cream, otherwise you'd know that Italian ice cream is by far the superior product.
It would give me more time to think about it. Because at first I was going to use one of my wishes to make Trump disappear.
I would be very concerned that somebody had spiked by green tea!
Ok thought about this properly.
1) I would wish the most lofty wish which would be to attain enlightenment.
2) I would wish for the ability and skill to teach others to Also attain enlightenment
3) I would wish for a total end to world poverty!
I've heard people rave about Italian ice cream but it's not clear exactly what they're describing. Usually it turns out that they're talking about gelato, not ice cream. It's a different product. I'm definitely open to trying other ice creams.
German ice cream is really good. I think some of the kinds I had were like Italian (somehow I got that idea) and had very intense flavor. The intensity was the burst of flavor not sure if sugar too but definitely intense nut or fruit flavor itself. Seemed to be nut and fruit flavors. Very intense and I seem to think that was the Italian style. And then I've had Belgian ice cream and a lot less intense flavor but very creamy and similar to American (quality brands) ice cream.
Some American ice cream is dense (little aeration) but it is more expensive. @Dakini was talking about the density. Ben and Jerry is pretty good dense ice cream. And you can make your own pretty easily with an ice cream machine.
I would save the wishes if possible.
And you can make your own pretty easily with an ice cream machine.
We had fresh milk and cream growing up on an acreage. The cream made excellent home-made ice cream.
Actually now that I've thought about it, > @yagr said:
Oh, Lord, just think what would happen if Trump did mysteriously disappear. Those paranoid gun loving Tea Bagger cult followers of his would be certain it was Obama who kidnapped the man, probably with the help of the Mexican Muslim Mafia. Deranged good old boys would be staging terrorist attacks in retaliation everywhere in the South.
Plus we'd have to listen to Cruz' bs for the next 10 months.
If you guys can exercise Gun Control, why not 'Idiot Control'...? Oh yeah, sorry..... 1st Amendment....
When it comes to ice cream I don't go for a particular brand. However I love the luxury ice cream you get in a good restaurant. Very important for me that it is a high end creamy vanilla (not yellow) with small chunks of Dark chocolate throughout. I will be as mindful as possible of every mouthful next time! The big turn off if it arrives at your table a little melted. Must be solid but without seeing bits of ice all over it which is also a turn off !
With ice-cream I go for quantity rather than quality.
My wishes would be questions about the fairy itself and about the source of its awesome power, the answers that I would get would be far more greater then any wish that anyone could possibly ever make, my questions could very well take me on an epic journey.
....or she just might clout you over the head with her magic wand for being so logically presumptuous as to even try to question her origins and motives.
I would.....
If a magical creature landed on someones shoulder and is willing to grant him or her wishes then that person would be special even before meeting the fairy because that could mean that destiny played a role in it.
Yeah 'special' alright
.....Hello Mr straight jacket..."Um so tell me ....When did this 'fairy' first start talking to you ???" 
Wishes in this context are a little scary to me. Because I've experienced often enough what happens when you get what you asked for. And sometimes, the method by which it happens or the results are not what you wanted after all. Joy comes from being content with the present, whatever it happens to be and looking to suddenly make changes to that can throw the whole train off the rails. Which is what frequently happens when people see enormous changes to their lives, like winning the big lottery. Also, I've ready 11/22/63, lol, and know that when we seek to change the natural course of things the consequences are often worse than what they would have been had we left things alone.
Perhaps suffering isn't something meant to simply POOF! disappear. Perhaps to truly experience a lack of suffering we have to go through the process. Perhaps the learning we need to experience out of suffering is necessary.
I think my wishes would be pretty simply. I'd wish the fairy to go help someone who needed it more than me, because really my life is pretty good. But if I had no choice but to accept the wishes, I would ask for the expensive sewer repair that we can't really afford, a new vacuum, and a new pair of running shoes. I'd keep it simple, to hopefully lessen unintended consequences.
Ah @karasti wise words. Not how much we can get out of the fairy but how little we need.
Well said. Many thanks.
The Zennies would probably enjoy that though, they love hit getting with sticks.
That's a specific school of Zen. Maybe a few off shoots..
I'm a Zennie, and have never been touched by one in my Monastery or any I have visted.
I attend a Vietnamese school...the stick is a Japanese school thing, as far as I'm aware.
Just to clarify that generalization
You sound a little wistful though...
Had to look up that word. Wistful.
Nope, sorry...no wistfulness here. I have/have had no desire for the stick or the sandal.
I also won't call my Teacher 'Master' ....so..maybe it's a cultural thing....
Wow @karasti that is an excellent reminder to keep us on our path!
That we discover the secret to warp drive
Mandatory atom reconstruction replicators in all homes across the globe
Free education for everyone worldwide unless a subject is failed (to steer away the temptation to be a career student)
Alternately, I'd wish for the fairys ability to grant wishes, an island in the caribean that nobody else can detect and enough cash to make a difference in poorer countries.
Gawd, it's sounding like the interviews on a Miss World show here.
Only three wishes?? Okay ummm .... Uhhh....wow! I wish this wasn't so hard. Ahhh darn it! No wait! .....ughhh...really wish I hadn't said that...... Arghh I wish I was better at this stuff......no wait ughhhh. Wait was that three? Wow I'm bad at this! I really wish fairies weren't so darn stingy with their wishes..... Ahhhh forget it I give up.
1 - Collingwood get booted out of the AFL
2 - Swans win the Grand Final for ever
3 - Instant Enlightenment