Lately I embarked on an expedition to understand life or at least it meaning… right below are what I gathered from different sources as regarding the meaning of life, however I came to realize that personal perception is significant in each of this insight. The story of Blind Men and the Elephant depicts how opinions can widely vary based on individual sensitivity.
Six blind men were discussing exactly what they believed an elephant to be, since each had heard how strange the creature was, yet none had ever seen one before. So the blind men agreed to find an elephant and discover what the animal was really like.
It didn't take the blind men long to
find an elephant at a nearby market. The first blind man approached the beast
and felt the animal's firm flat side. "It seems to me that the elephant is
just like a wall," he said to his friends.
The second blind man reached out and
touched one of the elephant's tusks. "No, this is round and smooth and
sharp - the elephant is like a spear."
Intrigued, the third blind man stepped
up to the elephant and touched its trunk. "Well, I can't agree with either
of you; I feel a squirming writhing thing - surely the elephant is just like a
snake."
The fourth blind man was of course by
now quite puzzled. So he reached out, and felt the elephant's leg. "You
are all talking complete nonsense," he said, "because clearly the
elephant is just like a tree."
Utterly confused, the fifth blind man
stepped forward and grabbed one of the elephant's ears. "You must all be
mad - an elephant is exactly like a fan."
Duly, the sixth man approached, and,
holding the beast's tail, disagreed again. "It's nothing like any of your
descriptions - the elephant is just like a rope."
And all six blind men continued to
argue, based on their own particular experiences, as to what they thought an
elephant was like. It was an argument that they were never able to resolve.
Each of them was concerned only with their own idea. None of them had the full
picture, and none could see any of the other's points of view. Each man saw the
elephant as something quite different, and while in part each blind man was
right, none was wholly correct.
There is never just one way to look at
something - there are always different perspectives, meanings, and perceptions,
depending on who is looking. There is also no one acceptable view of life.
Albert Einstein
said Life is like riding a bicycle. To
keep your balance you must keep moving”, Lilly Tomlin said Life’s a rat race. The
trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you’re still a rat”.
Ralph Waldo Emerson view life as “an
experiment, the more experiments you make the better” while Bruce Lee, the late popular martial
artist advises “If you love life don’t
waste time because time is what life is made of”, Helen Keller who overcame the
adversity of being blind and deaf to become one of the 20th century's leading
humanitarians is of the opinion that “Life
is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood”. Bertrand
Russell considers “Life as nothing but a competition to be the criminal
rather than the victim”
Danny Kaye said “Life is a big canvass you should throw all
the paints on it as you can”. “Life is like a cobweb not an organizational
chart” said Ross Perot. Miguel Angel Ruiz believes “Life is like dancing…some will get angry when the rhythm changes. But
life changes all the time”.
Someone even said “Life is like an onion, you peel it off one
layer at a time, and sometime you weep” another person asserts “Life is just a mirror, and what you see out
there you must first see inside you”. But “In the end it is not the years in your life that count it is the life
in your years” concluded Abraham Lincoln (16th American
president)
Make every day of
your life count, live for God! Philippians 1:21.
