Replying to LO25489 --
hello, At. You've generated a response, here, in your cyber-experiment.
You asked, "Can some experiences of any person be irrelevant or wrong?"
Your question reminded me of the following parable from the teachings of
Rumi.
"Some Indians took an elephant into a dark house to exhibit it. People
entered the house to try and find out what it was like, but since it was
too dark for them to see anything clearly, they each had to feel the
elephant with their hands. One person put his hand on its trunk and said,
"This animal is like a water-pipe!" The hand of another brushed its large
ear; it seemed to him like a fan. Another seized its leg and declared,
"The form of the elephant is like a pillar!" Another put his hand on his
back and proclaimed, "The elephant is like a throne!"
"Each time anyone heard a description of the elephant, he would understand
it through the particular part he had touched. According to whichever
section of the animal they had encountered, people's affirmations
differed. If each of them had held out a candle in the dark all
differences between what they said would have vanished."
"The eye of outward sense is only like the palm of a hand; how can you
discover an elephant in its totality with just a palm? The eye of the sea
is one thing, the foam another; leave the foam aside, see with the eye of
the sea."
warm regards,
Doc Holloway
[Host's Note: Thanks, Doc, for this quote. We've probably all heard this
re-told informally. Thanks for the original. ..Rick]
------------------
"The salvation of the world lies in the human heart." -Vaclav Havel
Richard Charles Holloway -
P.O. Box 2361, Olympia, WA 98507 USA Telephone 253.539.4014 or 206.568.7730
Thresholds <http://www.thresholds.com>
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--"Richard C. Holloway" <learnshops@thresholds.com>
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