Stay Open

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‘Be willing to be a beginner
every single morning.’
~ Meister Eckhart ~

This story is an ancient parable found in Buddhist, Hindu, Jain, and Sufi traditions. It’s a story about six blind men who encounter an elephant for the first time.

Each man touches a different part of the elephant to understand what it is, and each man shares what they discover about it.

The first blind man put out his hand and touched the side of the elephant. “How smooth! An elephant is like a wall.”

The second blind man put out his hand and touched the trunk of the elephant. “How round! An elephant is like a snake.”

The third blind man put out his hand and touched the tusk of the elephant. “How sharp! An elephant is like a spear.”

The fourth blind man put out his hand and touched the leg of the elephant. “How tall! An elephant is like a tree.”

The fifth blind man reached out his hand and touched the ear of the elephant. “How wide! An elephant is like a fan.”

The sixth blind man put out his hand and touched the tail of the elephant. “How thin! An elephant is like a rope.”

The six men then fall into a heated argument, each convinced their partial experience is the absolute truth.

The Rajah, awakened by the commotion, called out from the balcony. “The elephant is a big animal,” he said. “Each man touched only one part. You must put all the parts together to find out what an elephant is like.” 

Enlightened by the Rajah’s wisdom, the blind men reached agreement. “Each one of us knows only a part. To find out the whole truth we must put all the parts together.”

This parable was a great reminder to me to stay open and retain a beginners mindset. There is a quiet power in realizing that the more we “know,” the less room we leave for our inner truth and wisdom to arise.

It’s a practice each day, as we live in a world that continually feeds us only one version of the story.