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http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~rywang/berkeley/258/parable.html

Well, now that you’ve read the story, what do you think?

I think that in the story all the people have their own points of view. None of the people are open minded and only think that they are correct. They have only look at their own point of view and don’t try to understand other’s views.

I think that this story tells us that when we disagree about what we don’t know, it is possible that we are all correct.
In the first example it talked about how some people said that our soul dies with our soul, but some people disagreed saying that our soul lives on forever. No one knows the answer the this and I believe that there are disagreements because no one knows for sure.

I think that Buddha told the raja the story to teach him that he could tell the arguing hermits and scholars that they could take different views on the subject and see what the others think.

I think that the message from ‘The Blind Men and the Elephant’ is that everyone has different ideas and perceptions about what they think the elephant looks like based on their own values. The blind men only knew of one perspective of the elephant which was their own so they didn’t try to understand anyone else’s points of views.

I think that the Buddha assembled the blind men the way he did to prove that the blind men and the scholars are “by nature quarrelsome and disputatious”. This most likely because they are ignorant.

I don’t really get why the king decide to do this to the blind people.

I agree with Pong, everyone has their point of view. The blind men were being closed minded by not trying to share and understand the other’s point of view.

I feel sorry for the blind men who had to touch the unpredictable elephant. It was interesting how one of the men thought the ears felt like a fan. Although each man touched different parts, it was kind of foolish how they have to argue about it.
I do wonder why the King had to do this kind of experiment?

I disagree with Pong’s idea that the men are too close minded by not recieving other people other’s point of view. They are blind and they can’t see what they are touching so they used their senses to define what an elephant is. All of them touches different parts of the elephant, how would they know who is right?

I think Pong’s opinion is right but sometimes it’s not. People have their own point of view, so people who agree and disagree talk to eachother and tell why they think like that. So people might change their mind. “In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.”
They are not trying to be open-minded and just thinking in their own way. I think people should take turn and touch all parts of the elephant so that people will understand the elephant more.

I agree with Earth.
If you can’t see, how can you know who is right?

I disagree with Yonathan because I don’t think “Ignorant” is the word to describe the blind men

Eman said that the story tells us that when we disagree about what we don’t know, it’s possible that we are all correct, and i agree with eman. People have thier own way of thinking and sometimes, their results don’t match with other people.

I agree to E-man said about how people disgree with what we don’t know and that it is possible that all of us are correct. Everyone has their own perceptions based on their background, beleifs and values they have. The blind people in the story, would probably agree with each other after having a discussion about the different parts of the elepahnt body they had touched.

“In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome, wrangling and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.”

I agree with Eman, they are all going to be quarrelsome and disagree with one another but they are blind and cannot see what is really there. Thus nobody is more correct than anyone else.

At most i agree with rhian because the people who are blind cant know what is really true. They all have there own perceptions even though none of them are completely sure.
The quote that i think really describes this is “each maintaining reality is thus and thus.”
Evereyone in this world has different perceptions even though some of us can agree on the same things sometimes.
If i was a blind person and i was told to touch an elephant and see how it is i would probably have similar things to what these blind men said. All the quarraling came when every blind man wants to know they are the one who is right.

Every one has a differnt style of viewing their perceptions some people who are Christians believe that when you die your body remains on earth while the soul goes to heaven and when Jesus comes there shall be a rapture where all those who have accepted Jesus as their personal saviour there souls shall re-enter their bodies and they will become whole. While other religions believe that when you die you just die
and others believe there is rebirth.
I agree with Rhian coz people beleive what they want to believe not having proof of it so same goes to the blind men they were believing in what they thought of the elephant without proof.

as e-man said, the story is qouting that the the hermits and scholars are arguing over something that is not proven or don’t have an answer. they are so convinced in their opinion to even bother to open up. While the Buddha uses the blind man as an example because of the way they tried to imagine what an elephant looked like and listening to others view of what the elephant might look like. Although some did not agree but they all listened to each others opinion and got a better ‘Picture’ of the elephant, to which they would keep agreeing or disagreeing with their own opinion.

My point of view about this story is that all the people have there own perception and that is ok, because people always see things differently from one another. I agree with pong.

I think it’s not fair the servant gave the blind men different parts of the elephant.Of course, they’ll have different opinions if they all touched different parts of the elephant. I agree with Pong, that the people in the story have their own point of view and don’t accept other people’s opinion.

I agree with Sarah. I dont think that the servant should have given them different parts to touch. If they are touching different parts, of course they would fight. If they knew they were touching different parts, and werent stuck up on their own ideas, they most likely wouldn’t have fought, but would have asked to touch the other parts.

I agree with Sarah. I dont think that the servant should have given them different parts to touch. If they are touching different parts, of course they would fight. If they knew they were touching different parts, and werent stuck up on their own ideas, they most likely wouldn’t have fought, but would have asked to touch the other parts.

I think that everyone has a different perception of what they think an elephant looks like based on their past experiences, and since they were blind man they knew only of their past experiences and with nothing to see to prove there’s wrong, they didn’t want to change their ‘views’.

I agree with sarah.
If people who are blind touched different parts of the elepant,of course they will have different opinions and ideas about it.
So they are going to argue, but they cannot know who is right and wrong.

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