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 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 his or her own sense of reason and logic. The
many things that people experience throughout their lifetimes, help to determine the
judgments toward the different issues and objects that they encounter. Because individuals
has his or her own sense of reason and logic, the perceptions that people encounter are
ultimately true, and not false. Life does not contain one truth for any idea or object, but
truths can be found in one's perception. It is difficult to determine that anything is the
absolute truth. One should not prove that any object contains a true meaning, but should
develop conceptions surrounding the object.
Attempting to prove anything then would be difficult, if not impossible. Our senses from
smell to values to reality may differ from person to person. What may be true to one person
may be different for another....
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