Viewpoints

The poet John Godfrey Saxe tells a very interesting story about points of view.

Six men blind from birth went to see what an elephant was. The first approached the animal, touching its rump and said:

– The elephant is very much like a wall.

The second came close and the first part he felt was the elephant’s tusk. Soon he questioned the definition of the former, saying:

– Wall? The elephant looks like a spear!

The third took the trunk and criticized the two:

– The elephant looks like a snake!

The fourth touched the animal’s knee and proclaimed:

You are all very wrong! The elephant is like a tree!

– The fifth approached touching the ear. He thought, of course, that all of his friends were incredibly wrong:

– The elephant is like a fan!

The sixth and last man felt the tail: – Anyone can feel that the elephant is exactly like a rope!

All six men were right. We can define what an elephant is from six different points of view!

But in life, we generally forget that points of view other than our own can be just as right.

History reminds us of Thai master Ajahn Chah’s quote: “You have so many views and opinions, what is good and bad, right and wrong, how things should be. You cling to your views and suffer so much. It’s just points of view, you know.”

And also the phrase of Prof. Henrique José de Souza: “The real man is the one who is not rooted in the same ideas”.

It is really important, in interpersonal relationships, to try to understand the point of view of the others with whom we are interacting. It’s easy to understand: just think about the life story of each one, what the person has lived in the past, suffered and learned…

In Ajahn Chah’s phrase we can also see that we always have a point of view of the way things should be. Things – which are not under our control – are as they are.

Nothing prevents, of course, that we seek to improve – but wisdom tells us that we have everything we need at the moment.

What do you think? Agree or disagree? What’s your point of view?

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