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1. THE TRUTH
There is a story about four blind men who wanted to know about the
elephant. An elephant was brought to them. The first person came forward
and touched the animal’s tail. He thought that the elephant is like a rope.
The second person touched its leg and thought that it is like a tree. The third
person touched its ivory and thought that it is like a spear. The fourth person
touched its trunk and thought it is a moving round tube.
Since each of them used one sense only, namely, the sense of touch,
each one had a limited perception of the elephant. Each of them would hold
his opinion and would say that others are wrong. Had they possessed the
sense of sight, they would have seen that each of them had touched only a
small part of the animal and did not have a full concept of the elephant.
With the help of another sense, in this case, the sense of sight, they will have
a broader understanding than by using one sense only, here, the sense of
touch. The more senses we use the more understanding we shall have.
If we compare our senses to the notes of a musical instrument, such as
a piano, we have five notes only. Some people are said to possess a kind of
mysterious ability called ‘the sixth sense”. Their brains are said to have the
ability to perceive the message transmitted by the brain waves of others.
However, we have not heard a person who claimed to possess the seventh
sense. Compared to the piano, our ”instrument” is very poor, since it has no
more than six notes only, if the sixth sense it accepted as genuine.
Our senses are not fully reliable. They can make mistakes. Therefore,
they have to pass the test called the judgement of reason. Our sense of sight,
for example, tells us that the moon is much bigger than the stars, but our
reason holds the opposite view. When we become ill, everything tastes bitter,
even honey.
The language we use to express our judgement and ideas is very
limited. How can we explain the colour to the blind and the sound to the
deaf, not to mention the beauty of the Rocky Mountain scenery and the
melody of a Mozart symphony? We cannot even explain the sweetness of
honey.
We may speak the same language, but this does not guarantee that we
understand each other properly. We may feel that we are speaking in
different languages because of our different level of knowledge and
understanding. Let us suppose that an astronaut is landing on a certain planet