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Passages similar to: The Masnavi — The Elephant in a Dark Room
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Sufi
The Masnavi
The Elephant in a Dark Room (Summary)
Some Hindoos were exhibiting an elephant in a dark room, and many people collected to see it. But as the place was too dark to permit them to see the elephant, they all felt it with their hands, to gain an idea of what it was like. One felt its trunk, and declared that the beast resembled a water-pipe; another felt its ear, and said it must be a large fan; another its leg, and thought it must be a pillar; another felt its back, and declared the beast must be like a great throne. According to the part which each felt, he gave a different description of the animal. One, as it were, called it "Dal" and another "Alif."
Sufi
The Knowledge of God (10)
As long as this difference in the perceptive faculty of observers exists, disputes must necessarily go on. It is as if some blind men, hearing that...
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Buddhist
Chapter XXIII: The Elephant (324)
The elephant called Dhanapâlaka, his temples running with sap, and difficult to hold, does not eat a morsel when bound; the elephant longs for the...
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Taoist
The Tao of God. (12)
But alas! the people of this generation think that form, and colour, and sound, and noise, are means by which they can come to understand the essence ...
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Jewish Apocrypha
Chapter LXXXVI (4)
And I looked at them and saw, and behold they all let out their privy members, like horses, and began to cover the cows of the oxen, and they all beca...
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Jewish Apocrypha
Chapter LXXXVIII (2)
And one of them drew a sword, and gave it to those elephants and camels and asses: then they began to smite each other, and the whole earth quaked bec...
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Hindu
Brahmana 4 (1.4.7)
Verily, at that time the world was undifferentiated. It became differentiated just by name and foim, as the saying is: differentiated just by name...
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Jewish Apocrypha
Chapter LXXXVII (4)
And one said unto me: 'Remain here till thou seest everything that befalls those elephants, camels, and asses, and the stars and the oxen, and all of ...
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Hindu
Sankhya Yoga (2.29)
One sees Him as a wonder; and so also another speaks of Him as a wonder; and as a wonder another hears of Him; and though hearing, none understands...
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Zoroastrian
Chapter XIX (6)
The one horn is as it were of gold and hollow, and a thousand branch horns have grown upon it, some befitting a camel, some befitting a horse, some...
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Hindu
Brahmana 4 (2.4.14)
Where, verily, everything has become just one's own self, then whereby and whom would one smell? then whereby and whom would one see? then whereby and...
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Taoist
Man Among Men. (11)
Also, that whole animals are not given, for fear of exciting the tigers' fury when rending them? The periods of hunger and repletion are carefully wat...
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