The Blind Men and the Elephant Musings on INTERFAITH

• The Blind Men and the Elephant: Musings on INTERFAITH by Dave Dollins, and Suzanne Stewart Pohlman @ A year in review of the wondrous creature

Extract:

"Most of us know the Hindu fable of the elephant and the blind men: Five blind men encounter an elephant. One grabs the leg and is convinced it’s  a tree trunk. One holds the tail and is convinced it’s a whip. Another touches the elephant’s trunk and decides it’s a hose while the fourth man pats the side and is sure that it is a wall. The fifth man grabs an ear and marvels how the elephant is very much like a fan. The wise man tells them: “You are all right.” 

And so it is at INTERFAITH. Clients, donors, volunteers, faith communities  and staff all have different perspectives about INTERFAITH and just like the five blind men each of them is absolutely right about what makes INTERFAITH unique. 

And just as in the fable, to discover what the wondrous creature really is, you must put all those separate parts together. So here is our annual sharing of INTERFAITH and all its pieces. You will see that it’s been a busy and marvelous year..."

On the same shelf:

• Six blind men is a parable that has crossed between many religious traditions and is part of Jain, Buddhist, Sufi and Hindu lore. Read more
• Six blind men and an elephant, by ben vershbow ideas from the famous Librarian, Thomas Mann: The Oxford Guide to Library Research.  quoted in Database Searching -- Information Literacy for Library Technicians
• "Tyner (1992) has been able to draw parallels between the parable of the blind men and the elephant, in which each of whom senses a little part of the whole and existing media literacy movement in the US." quoted in Thesis on Changing Roles of Library and Information Profession: Case Study in Vietnam.
• "I have come to use the word to mean that the totality of sacred (however we may define the sacred) is unknown and not knowable. To understand this we need to move beyond the Buddhist example of the blind people and the elephant. For an elephant is a definable thing." in The Interfaith Alternative: Embracing Spiritual Diversity, by Steven Greenebaum (2012)
• Blind men, elusive elephant, and the first amendment