Do you believe there is more than one way to see the truth?

Question

I was researching Jainism and I found this anology about life philosophy. Jainism is a branch of Hinduism. It's similar to Buddhism.

The analogy is this: there are four blind men who discover an elephant. Since the men have never encountered an elephant, they grope about, seeking to understand and describe this new phenomenon. One grasps the trunk and concludes it is a snake. Another explores one of the elephant's legs and describes it as a tree. A third finds the elephant's tail and announces that it is a rope. And the fourth blind man, after discovering the elephant's side, concludes that it is, after all, a wall.
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This seems like a rational arguement.

But wait...

what if a fifth person comes along and has already experienced an elephant?

Your thoughts?

guys...you didn't read the last part of what I said...

What if someone knows its an elephant?

Doesn't that make all the others false?

Answer 1

I would say Jainism is INFLUENCED by Buddhism.

The analogy works for me, and I find a lot more meaningful wisdom in eastern religion than I do in the Abrahamic ones.

Answer 2

I'm a Buddhist and I'll tell you that there is DEFINATELY more than one way to see the truth. Ever hear the saying "there are three sides to each story, yours mine and the truth?" Also, as Obi-Wan tells us "so what I told you was true, from a certain point of view". Rarely will a person ever have the WHOLE picture and understand all the components of anything, we only get pieces, say, a few pieces of a puzzle, but we can't know the WHOLE truth without those other puzzle pieces.

If you could get the WHOLE picture and no part was uncertain, than you could understand the truth in only one way. I've never seen a case of that out side of mathematics.

1+1 = 2 all components are easy to understand, complete and lead to no other conclusion.

I love John, he slept in my bed last night. This is also true. However, without knowing more like who is John? What is his relationship to me, in what way to I love him, for what reason was he in my bed? There are many possible things this truth is telling you. Its true but the message could be a confession of a pediphile or a loving wife. (In my case, its loving wife.)

Make sense?

No, even if someone knows more of the circumstances than you, does not make others wrong. In the analogy of the blind men and the elephant, each man is right and has experienced the truth. Each one is holding a valid piece of puzzle. If you know more you are not more correct or them less so, you just know more. Each man has the ability to show each of the others their piece of truth, they could be wrong for not doing so, but does not neglate the validity of their own true experience.

What some CSI or other crime scene investigation type shows. They all make this point validly and clearly. The evidence can not lie, however, just because you have all the evidence does not mean that all the pieces of the whole bring you to right conclusion. - that's not the best example, but its the best working one I can think of right now.

This point is VERY hard to explain if you're not more versed in Eastern Philosophy. The thought process is FAR different from us Westerners.

Answer 3

Your problem here is that the first four men only had partial truths and therefore could not come to a true conclusion. Religion is no different. In order to reach God, you have to have ALL the facts, not just a select few.

God does present ALL the facts. The only problem is that when these four blind men discuss what they found none of them believe the other because they refuse to believe that they have all found different aspects of the elephant.

So, your analogy of the 5th man coming along will try to bring them together, but they won't listen because they are hard in their hearts and refuse to believe that there could be more than just what they experienced. The four continue to be blind while the fifth has the complete knowledge and even offers to share the fullness but they refuse to believe.

That is why God sends forth prophets to show us the fullness of his Gospel, even in this so-called enlightened age of technology and science.

Answer 4

The analogy is about perception and how different people have what we call "valid perception" from our individual pov, but it's not always CORRECT PERCEPTION... so obviously if the 5th person who has experienced the elephant does so from a similar pov (short of having experienced "emptiness" directly or at least a significant understanding of it) it will still only be VALID perception and not necessarily correct perception.

Hope this explains some.

_()_

Answer 5

The elephant is an elephant - no matter what the experiencer interprets their experience as. The elephant is absolute truth.

But the experiences could be different. That is relative truth.

~ Eric Putkonen

Answer 6

Yes they are many perceptions of the truth. To prove this to yourself - take a group of friends on an outing with you to do some people observation. Then have each of them write down what they had seen without saying anything to others or another. When you are finished with your experiment - gather their work and see what they wrote. You'll see what I mean

Answer 7

Absoulutley! Truth is completley subjective. Like justice, or good and evil. it is like the spectrum of light through a prism. Only you can decide what is good and evil, truth or lies, based on your paradigm of existance. The context in which you grew up and how you see the world. Joesph campbell the philosopher used to say " No matter how good you think you are your always bad to someone else".

Answer 8

I think that, when it comes to matters of faith, "TRUTH" is relative.

John 18: 37 Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.
38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.

Answer 9

Great analogy, Great application. I'll have to think awhile.

The problem is knowing if the 5th person has truly experienced the whole elepahant or just thinks he has.

Answer 10

i agree. and what a wonderful analogy! i had heard that before and forgotten it until now, thanks!

unless the first 4 are open to learning, i bet all 5 would get into an argument! all insisting they are right (except maybe the 5th, as he would know that they all have part of the truth)