Hi
Can somebody advise if there are any Suttas or buddhist teachings related to making wishes in the Buddhist context?
thank you.
Best Regards
Ben
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AN10.2 tells us how awakening is not brought by by mere wish but through a specific impersonal causation rooted in virtue and ethics.
AN5.43 tells us that 5 things which are likeable by all - long life, beauty, happiness, fame, and heaven - are not achieved by aspiration but in fact the result of certain things that require cultivation and endeavour:
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True, but if you do have virtue and ethics, you can make a wish to direct that merit towards a particular goal, either rebirth in a certain realm, or towards awakening:
MN 41
A person of principled and moral conduct might wish: ‘If only, when my body breaks up, after death, I would be reborn in the company of well-to-do aristocrats!’ It’s possible that this might happen. Why is that? Because they have principled and moral conduct.A person of principled and moral conduct might wish: ‘If only, when my body breaks up, after death, I would be reborn in the company of well-to-do brahmins … well-to-do householders …
the Gods of the Four Great Kings …
the Gods of the Thirty-Three … the Gods of Yama … the Joyful Gods … the Gods Who Love to Create … the Gods Who Control the Creations of Others … the Gods of Brahmā’s Group …
the Radiant Gods …
the Gods of Limited Radiance … the Gods of Limitless Radiance … the Gods of Streaming Radiance … the Gods of Limited Glory … the Gods of Limitless Glory … the Gods Replete with Glory … the Gods of Abundant Fruit … the Gods of Aviha … the Gods of Atappa … the Gods Fair to See … the Fair Seeing Gods … the Gods of Akaniṭṭha … the gods of the dimension of infinite space … the gods of the dimension of infinite consciousness … the gods of the dimension of nothingness … the gods of the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception.’ It’s possible that this might happen. Why is that? Because they have principled and moral conduct.
A person of principled and moral conduct might wish: ‘If only I might realize the undefiled freedom of heart and freedom by wisdom in this very life, and live having realized it with my own insight due to the ending of defilements.’ It’s possible that this might happen. Why is that? Because they have principled and moral conduct.”
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Indeed. Both suttas are explaining the same principle, right? 
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I am afraid if someone might misconstrue MN.41 to mean that it is the purpose of being a follower of the Buddha’s teaching.
Even though it is possible, the overall goal of the teaching is to eradicate all forms of formations sankhara which is Nibbana.
With Metta
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