GEN-MEDIEVAL-L Archives

From: "Barrie J. Wright" <>
Subject: Re: Tompsett fini!
Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2001 15:19:46 +0930
References: <ad.9121ff1.27fa18bc@aol.com>

Typical of ol' Buddha and many of his followers.

Give no rational answer at all, but sound so superior doing it!

Barrie J. Wright
GLENELG EAST, 5045
in Adelaide, South Australia


----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Tuesday, 3 April 2001 3:32
Subject: Tompsett fini!


> Hi Group:
>
> My apologies for bringing up Tompsett's database sometime ago! I was
> merely trying to give him the benefit of the doubt concerning his work
and I
> had no idea that it would spin off into this contentious nonsense!
> A friend of mine shared the following tale with me yesterday and
perhaps
> it will benefit the group if I share it with you:-)
>
> "A number of disciples went to the Buddha and said, "Sir, there are
living
> here in Savatthi many wandering hermits and scholars who indulge in
constant
> dispute, some saying that the world is infinite and eternal and others
that
> it is finite and not eternal, some saying that the soul dies with the
body
> and others that it lives on forever, and so forth. What, Sir, would you
say
> concerning them?"
>
> The Buddha answered, "Once upon a time there was a certain raja who
called to
> his servant and said, 'Come, good fellow, go and gather together in one
place
> all the men of Savatthi who were born blind... and show them an
elephant.'
> 'Very good, sire,' replied the servant, and he did as he was told.
>
> He said to the blind men assembled there, 'Here is an elephant,' and to
one
> man he presented the head of the elephant, to another its ears, to
another a
> tusk, to another the trunk, the foot, back, tail, and tuft of the tail,
> saying to each one that that was the elephant.
>
> "When the blind men had felt the elephant, the raja went to each of them
and
> said to each, 'Well, blind man, have you seen the elephant? Tell me, what
> sort of thing is an elephant?'
>
> "Thereupon the men who were presented with the head answered, 'Sire, an
> elephant is like a pot.' And the men who had observed the ear replied,
'An
> elephant is like a winnowing basket.' Those who had been presented with a
> tusk said it was a ploughshare. Those who knew only the trunk said it was
a
> plough; others said the body was a grainery; the foot, a pillar; the
back, a
> mortar; the tail, a pestle, the tuft of the tail, a brush.
>
> "Then they began to quarrel, shouting, 'Yes it is!' 'No, it is not!' 'An
> elephant is not that!' 'Yes, it's like that!' and so on, till they came
to
> blows over the matter.
>
> "Brethren, the raja was delighted with the scene.
>
> "Just so are these preachers and scholars holding various views blind and
> unseeing.... In their ignorance they are by nature quarrelsome,
wrangling,
> and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus."
>
>
> Best Wishes
> Phil
>
> ______________________________

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