FratFiles

• Save Paper

An elephant was brought to a group of blind men who had never
encountered such an animal before. One felt a leg and reported that an
elephant is a great living pillar. Another felt the trunk and reported that an
elephant is a great snake. Another felt a tusk and reported that an elephant
is like a sharp ploughshare. And so on. And then they all quarreled
together, each claiming that his own account was the truth and therefore
all the others false (traditional parable).

None of the accounts that the blind men made about the nature of the elephant are
absolute truths, nor are the accounts false. An absolute truth, or one that is true for all,
can not be achieved because of the constant motion of circumstances of who said it, to
whom, when, where, why, and how it was said. Instead of absolute truths, the concepts
or beliefs that the blind men claim are viewpoints that each one clarifies the nature of the
elephant.
Everybody has learned to see things from......

View the rest of this paper...

Approximate Word Count: 1043
Approximate Pages: 5 (250 words per double-spaced page)

Similar Essays

1. Absolute Understanding
   

   Absolute Understanding An elephant was brought to a group of blind men who had never encountered such an animal before. One felt a leg and reported that an elephant is a great

2. Absolute Understanding
   

   Absolute Understanding An elephant was brought to a group of blind men who had never encountered such an animal before. One felt a leg and reported that an elephant is a great

3. Dorthy Soelle
   

   that we can speak only symbolically about God, every symbol that sets itself up as absolute must be relativized." My understanding of Soelle's idea is that she is talking

4. Sahaja Yoga
   

   thyself" is the main theme of all the scriptures - it becomes evident and one reaches the absolute understanding of oneself. Thus one becomes peaceful and joyous in life. One

5. Untying The Knot
   

   the Knot Human beings have an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and an urgent drive for understanding. The further we go on our quest for absolute truth and the deeper we plunge