The Parable of the Blind and the Elephant

“Oh good man! For example, there is a king who says to his Minister: ' Fetch an elephant and show it to some blind person'. Then, following the royal order, the Minister drew many blind people, to whom he showed the elephant. All blind people touched the elephant with their hands. The Minister said to the king: 'I already have the blind people to recognize the elephant'.

Then the king called in the blind people and asked each of them: 'Have you seen the elephant'?
'Yes, sir! I saw the elephant '.
The king asked: 'How do you think the elephant is'?
The person who had touched their tusks said: 'The elephant is like the root of a goosefoot or a mushroom.’
The man who had touched its ear said: 'The elephant is like a fan.’
The one who had touched its trunk said: 'The elephant is like a pestle.’
The person who had touched their paws said: 'The elephant is like a handmill made of wood'.
The one who had touched the back said: 'The elephant is like a bed.’
The man who had touched its belly said: 'The elephant is like a pot '.
The man who had touched the tail said: 'The elephant is like a rope.’

Oh good man! All these blind people were unable to say well the form of the elephant. And yet, is not that they did not say anything about the elephant. All these aspects of representation are of the elephant. And, excluding these (aspects), there cannot be any elephant.

Oh good man! The King is comparable to the Tathagata-Arhat-Samyaksambuddha, the Minister (it is comparable) to the Vaipulya Great Nirvana Sutra, the elephant to the Buddha-Nature, and blind people to all beings who are ignorant.”

Read more on the Nirvana Sutra, Chapter 39, on Bodhisattva Lion's Roar 7.

parable of the blind and the elephant.mp3