Is this what you thought you saw?
Without seeing the whole picture, you might not have known what you were really looking at when you saw the cropped images of the man apparently napping and the monkey apparently swinging from a rope. There is a fable or proverb, which most likely originated in an ancient Buddhist scripture, about six blind men and an elephant. Let’s read a poem based on that story. Without touching all of the parts of the elephant, the blind men can’t understand the animal as a whole. Had they joined together to discuss what they felt and experienced, do you think they would have arrived at the fact of the matter? |
Your project
In pairs or small groups, answer in writing the following questions:
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Extension activity
The fable of the blind men and the elephant is similar to Plato's Allegory of the Cave. Watch the video below and discuss how the allegory is similar to the fable of The Blind Men and the Elephant. What connections can you make to the concept of nonduality and what we are learning in this unit?