~ Musings On...Blindness posted 3/7/2008 8:49:53 PM | 9 kudos what's this?     report abuse

sciurusniger

Six Blind Men & the Elephant
(John Godfrey Saxe, 1816-1887)

It was six men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
"God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!"

The Second, feeling of the tusk
Cried, "Ho! what have we here,
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!"

The Third approached the animal,
And happening to take
The squirming trunk within his hands,
Thus boldly up he spake:
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a snake!"

The Fourth reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee:
"What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain," quoth he;
"'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!"

The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: "E'en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
This marvel of an Elephant
Is very like a fan!"

The Sixth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope.
"I see," quoth he, "the Elephant
Is very like a rope!"

And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong!

Moral:

So oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has seen.


And so it is that perceptions are never whole, never complete. Each of us is a figurative blind man, groping our way through our singular lives, using varying degrees of senses in a way unlike any other and so receiving input that is unique and individual. This creates a unique and individual view of every single thing that in turn creates what is a unique and individual world.

In order to find some way in which to co-exist, people come together and try to commonize these infinite perceptions and so create varying belief systems known as cultures. Each one a collective agreement of how the world works and how its members will interact with minimal conflict.

Yet inherent to this model is that there can never be a right or wrong when differing cultures clash.

Religion is no different, being merely one facet born of a particular culture that is carried into others when members relocate. All contain in their core what I like to call the Highest Principle, that of the sacredness of life (albeit in varying degrees). Just as no single culture can be considered the absolute and only way to live, neither does any single religion contain the absolute and only way to view life in a way that negates man's inherent fear of what happens to us when we die. It has always been one of the greatest of ironies to me that more men have died in the name of "god" than by all natural disasters combined, in direct opposition to that Highest Principle. Which, sadly, seems to prove that, at least where the mundane world is concerned, ego is perhaps the only absolute.

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