August 13, 2010

Our World - Our Perception

"The world is the way one believes it to be."
Let me start by citing an old anecdote about the 5 blind men;
a clever minister wanted to illustrate that everyone has a perspective, though not same and neither wrong in itself. He asked 5 blind men to describe what an elephant is like? He promptly placed an elephant in the porch for them. They touched the elephant once and later described it.
These were their descriptions -
1) It is like a pillar, the one who touched its feet.
2) It’s like a broom, (tail)
3) Like a pipe, (trunk)
4) A Spear, (Tusks)
5) Flat, (Ears)
by this experiment he demonstrated that although everyone was right, but all were wrong as well.
Let's check this other story;
a sage is sitting under a tree, at the outskirts of a village. A traveller, searching for a prospective abode, enquires the sage about the type of people inhabiting the village. The sage asks him a question, "How are the people at your village?” the traveller responds that they are amicable and good natured. The sage then answered that the people of this village are also amicable and good.
The traveller is glad of the response and returns to his village, planning to pack his belonging and come with his family to settle at the new village.
A few days later, another such man asks the same question, on being asked about the nature of residents of his present village; the traveller answers that they are very quarrelsome and jealous. The sage then warns him that similar people inhabit this place as well. The traveller is crestfallen and returns.
A herdsman, privy to both the conversations could not contain himself and asks the sage, why he gave two different answers to those travellers. The sage explains to him, the village and the people are same everywhere, it’s just our perception of them. So even if I told the 2nd traveller that this is heaven on earth, he would have felt no difference from his old village.
It’s just: Our world is what we believe it to be, as simple or as Complex.

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