An elephant was brought to a group of blind
men who had never encountered such an animal before.
One felt a leg and reported that an elephant is a great living
pillar. Another felt the trunk and reported that an elephant
is a great snake. Another felt a tusk and reported that an
elephant is like a sharp ploughshare. And so on. And then
they all quarreled together, each claiming that his own
account was the truth and therefore all the others false
(traditional parable). None of the accounts that the blind
men made about the nature of the elephant are absolute
truths, nor are the accounts false. An absolute truth, or one
that is true for all, can not be achieved because of the
constant motion of circumstances of who said it, to whom,
when, where, why, and how it was said. Instead of
absolute truths, the concepts or beliefs that the blind men
claim are viewpoints that each one clarifies the nature of the
elephant. Everybody has learned to see things from his or
her own sense of reason and logic. The many things that
people experience throughout their lifetimes, help to
determine the judgments toward the different issues and
objects that they encounter. Because individuals has his or
her own sense of reason and logic, the perceptions that
people encounter are ultimately true, and not false. Life
does not contain one truth for any idea or object, but truths
can be found in one's perception. It is difficult to determine
that anything is the absolute truth. One should not prove
that any object contains a true meaning, but should develop
conceptions surrounding the object. Attempting to prove
anything then would be difficult, if not impossible. Our
senses from smell to values to reality may d ...