I heard this parable before but didn’t know it was a Buddhist parable. I think it’s a good example of skillful means usage to illustrate the dangers of monocausal thinking.
Always loved this analogy. However, at least from an Abhidharma Buddhist perspective, I would say that the Buddha can see the whole elephant. The Abhidharma Buddhist idea is that we are nothing more than subatomic particles and momentary events of consciousness. Other descriptions, like calling myself a human and my dog an animal--these are all conventions. Ultimately, there is no human or dog; these are both just heaps of subatomic particles and momentary events of consciousness. So, I always interpreted this analogy from an Abhidharma Buddhist perspective, and see it as saying that multiple theories can be true despite their differences, it's just the context determines each theory's truth-value. Obviously, from the elephant's leg, the elephant is like a tree, but that is not true for its tail. And yet the tail is true too as it is a separate context from the elephant's leg. So the elephant is like a tree in its legs and like a rope with its tail. I've always wondered if this elephant parable could be used to reconcile the different Abhidharma and early Buddhist schools and rather than the Sarvastivada and Sautrantika contradicting each other, the two could maybe complement each other instead.
Through all walks of life, you’re always going to have people who have various different opinions of others who say this is the absolute truth but like questioning what is the meaning of life what happens after death? What’s beyond black holes are infinite space nobody will ever have a clear answer. And I think people should be content in what they believe instead of having something forced down their throat, saying, I know the absolute truth and you’re wrong, which is no way for anybody to live I think that’s a short sighted worldview. This is why I don’t follow the herd mentality.
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I heard this parable before but didn’t know it was a Buddhist parable. I think it’s a good example of skillful means usage to illustrate the dangers of monocausal thinking.
Always loved this analogy. However, at least from an Abhidharma Buddhist perspective, I would say that the Buddha can see the whole elephant. The Abhidharma Buddhist idea is that we are nothing more than subatomic particles and momentary events of consciousness. Other descriptions, like calling myself a human and my dog an animal--these are all conventions. Ultimately, there is no human or dog; these are both just heaps of subatomic particles and momentary events of consciousness.
So, I always interpreted this analogy from an Abhidharma Buddhist perspective, and see it as saying that multiple theories can be true despite their differences, it's just the context determines each theory's truth-value. Obviously, from the elephant's leg, the elephant is like a tree, but that is not true for its tail. And yet the tail is true too as it is a separate context from the elephant's leg. So the elephant is like a tree in its legs and like a rope with its tail. I've always wondered if this elephant parable could be used to reconcile the different Abhidharma and early Buddhist schools and rather than the Sarvastivada and Sautrantika contradicting each other, the two could maybe complement each other instead.
Through all walks of life, you’re always going to have people who have various different opinions of others who say this is the absolute truth but like questioning what is the meaning of life what happens after death? What’s beyond black holes are infinite space nobody will ever have a clear answer. And I think people should be content in what they believe instead of having something forced down their throat, saying, I know the absolute truth and you’re wrong, which is no way for anybody to live I think that’s a short sighted worldview. This is why I don’t follow the herd mentality.
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