Perspectives

There is an Indian story of the blind men and an elephant:

A king brings six blind men into the palace, where an elephant is brought in and they are asked to describe it.

When the blind men had each touched a part of the elephant, the king asks them:

“Well, blind men, have you seen an elephant? Tell me, what sort of thing is an elephant?”

The blind man who feels a leg says the elephant is like a pillar. The one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope. The one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall. The one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe. “It’s a brush” says the man who feels the tip of the tail. “No, it’s like a throne”, says the man who feels the back.

 

photo credit: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blind_men_and_elephant2.jpg

The story continues in different versions; in some the story ends with a conflict that is never resolved. The moral is that we should not mistake for the whole and keep an open mind in considering other points of view.  

The parable provides insight into the relativism, opaqueness or inexpressible nature of truth, the behavior of experts in fields where there is a deficit or inaccessibility of information, the need for communication, and respect for different perspectives.

What I personally like more about this story is the significance of perspective. “Any single perspective is likely to be partial, limited, perhaps even distorted, and only by taking multiple perspectives and multiple contexts can the knowledge be fruitfully advanced” (Ken Wilber).

It’s a good reminder for me to seek and explore different perspectives.