Buddha's Story For Intellectuals

Blind men describing an elephant

In a great king's court, the scholars of the court started debating about God. The king was no ordinary king -- he was really a king, the king of the inner world. His outer kingdom was just accidental; it had happened accidentally to him.

In his court, they were discussing godliness. And the king started laughing, and he said, "Listen. Collect all the blind men of the town." And all the blind men were collected, and the king said, "Have you all seen elephants?" And they said, "Yes."

And then a great argument ensued. One blind man said, "An elephant is like this," another said, "The elephant is like this..." and their statements were very contradictory. Because one blind man had touched only the trunk, and another blind man had touched only the ear, and the third one had touched only the leg, and so on and so forth. Their descriptions were different, as different as they could be.

Unless you have seen, nothing is going to help

The king said to his scholars, the court scholars and pundits, "Listen: these blind people cannot agree on what an elephant is. And they all have seen something of the elephant! What about you? At least they have seen something -- one has touched the leg, another has touched the trunk... and you have not even seen a part of godliness and you are arguing. You are more blind than these blind people! Whatsoever you are saying is all nonsense. You can quote scriptures -- that is not going to help. Unless you have seen, nothing is going to help."

Osho, excerpted from The Perfect Master Vol.2 #1

---

No time to meditate?

Subscribe Meditation Seconds

---

Osho decribes in this story of Buddha how blind intellectuals can be. It is a well-known story, the tale of the blind men describing an elephant. This is what intellectuals do. According to this Osho quote they are blind people describing some part of the whole which they even cannot see. Only the person who can see knows what the elephant is.