Touching the Elephant

A group of inquisitive individuals, each blindfolded, is gathered around an elephant.

One grasps the leg and exclaims, "This is a tree."

Another, holding the tail, argues, "No, no. It's a rope."

A third person, feeling the tusk, insists, "You're both mistaken. It's more like a spear."

Yet another, hands on the ear, assuredly states, "It's a fan."

The last person runs their hand along the elephant's side and declares, "You're all wrong. It's a wall."

Each person, touching only one part of the elephant, believes their experience represents truth. They quarrel, each convinced of their perspective.

This ancient parable is not only indicative of modern politics and societal polemics but also provides keen insight into the nature of transcendence.

Each religion, each spirituality, each world-view has its own mythology of man. Whether of supreme origin, divine play, angelic intercession, or random selection, humankind is replete with blindfolded inquisitors.

Sadly we suffer no mere oral disagreement of distinguishing; bitter viciousness spews from sanctified thoughts, words, and weapons.

To what end? Making a wall of an elephant?

Yet walls we all build. Confidently erected to house the certainty of sovereignty. "My experience, my opinion, my people matter most."

Each disagreement we hold, each resentment of another restates that principle: "I am right; you are wrong."

We've reverse-alchemized the Golden Rule into leaden death.

Yet the elephant still sturdily stands.

The recognition of which requires a little willingness to consider, "Might there be another way?"

A silken thread of shared wisdom is woven through antiquity to modernity. One that pictures the whole in all seemingly separated parts. Speaking on this undivided union, A Course in Miracles reminds us, "It once was one, and still is what it was."

Looking at the parts without judgment allows each seeker to simultaneously see the whole. Hand in hand, touching the elephant.

Join me in Thursday's class where we'll explore the nature of righteousness and how we can use our experiences to lead us to the wholeness of truth and its resultant peace. I look forward to seeing you then.