More to Learn
My Dear People,
"A number of blind men came to an elephant. Somebody told them that it was an elephant. The blind men asked, "What is the elephant like?," and they began to touch its body. One of them said, "The elephant is like a pillar." This blind man had only touched its leg. Another man said, "The elephant is like a husking basket." This person had only touched its ears. Similarly, he who touched its trunk or its belly talked of it differently. In the same way, he who has seen the Lord in a particular way limits the Lord to that alone and thinks that He is nothing else."
- Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, 19th-century Hindu mystic
Ramakrishna tells here an ancient story, one that the Buddha told before him. A story that speaks, in a universal way, to the desire--the hunger--that every human being has to know. To know the truth, whatever we might call the truth.
"What is truth?," Pontius Pilate famously (or infamously) asked. It may be that we have heard Pilate's words as said with a sneer. Perhaps, however, they were said more in vulnerability and longing, or even in desperation. In truth, Pilate's question is our question; or one of our questions, anyway; as it is and has been for all human beings throughout all time.
The Truth is, indeed, elephantine.
That, however, is not to say that there is no Truth. Thank God. Far from it.
We simply have more to learn.
About the Truth. About God.
About Everything.
Your brother in Christ,
Wallace+
