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Adapted from The Blind Men and the Elephant, an Udana parable attributed sometimes to Jainism or Buddhism:

ONCE UPON A TIME, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them there is an elephant in the village that day. Having no idea what an elephant is, they all went where the elephant was and touched the elephant.

“Hey, the elephant is a pillar,” said the first man who touched his leg. “Oh, no! it is like a rope,” said the second man who touched the tail. “Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree,” said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant. “It is like a big hand fan,” said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant. “It is like a huge wall,” said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant. “It is like a solid pipe,” Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

As they argued, they got more and more agitated. Each kept insisting that he was right. Finally, a man who can see explained to them, “All of you are right. The reason each one of you are telling it differently because you touched a different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features that you all said.” Read the rest of this entry »