A
consideration into what is true. One’s perspective can and does alter what is
perceived. I would remind you of the old teaching story of the five blind men
who were walking down the road to go to a fair when they encountered an
elephant. One of the blind men felt only the tusk and said to his brethren,
“This beast is like into a spear”. Another had grabbed tin ear and said to a
friend, No, it is much more like a fan than a spear”. A third, holding its tail
declared that they were all wrong that it was much more like a rope than
anything they had described. Then the fourth, who had his arms wrapped around
one of the legs, chimed in, “Nope, it is much more like a tree than any of
those things”. Finley the last one, who was standing with his arms up and his hands
on the elephant’s side said out loud, “My brothers have all gone mad, for it is
plain to me that this beast is more like into a wall than any of those other
ideas!”
Then another
said to the rest, "Agree or disagree, we have to get on down to the fair
before it closes" and off they went, each with a firm understanding of
what each had perceived of what a true elephant was. This is the state we all
find ourselves in trying to perceive the truth, it is colored by the angle of
our perception, no two people can see the same thing at the same time because
each must, by the inability to stand in the same place at the same time,
observe the thing from different points of view.
This is the
state we all find ourselves in trying to perceive the truth, it is colored by the
angle of our perception, no two people can see the same thing at the same time
because each must, by the inability to stand in the same place at the same
time, observe the thing from different points of view. Not only is our
perception of the truth determined by the angles from which we look at it how
much time we have to consider it, to alter our point of view also determine our
ability to perceive the true nature of something. Each mind that perceives is alone in it
perception and its reasoning based upon that perception is unique to the
individual. It is an amazement that we
can ever agree on what the truth is.
Consider the
rightness of smoking tobacco. From the time it was discovered by Europeans in
America until fifty years ago, it was considered not only a good thing, but a
necessary thing in that a large part of the English’s making colonies in the
New World was to grow and export tobacco. Many a people’s livelihoods depended
upon its growth, processing, and sales. All of this was possible because of our
angle of our perception was solely for the pleasure it brought to us. Pleasure
both from the wealth it brought to those who provided it and from the ones who
smoked, chewed, and sniffed it. Now it
is perceived as a health hazard and to
be avoided, and taxed to death.
Did not the
way tobacco was seen change it from being right into being wrong? And did not
this change in our understanding of the goodness/badness of tobacco come from a
changing point of view, a point of view focuses more on the negative
consequences of smoking, higher incidents of cancer in users compared to non
users.
Now if it is
true that tobacco is good or bad is still dependent upon the point of view that
the user/nonuser looks at the issue from, for some the good outweighs the bad
and for others the bad is not worth the good.
