A Place at the Elephant

When I was little I had a book with stories from all around the world. One was a poem about seven blind men who set out to experience an elephant. Each came in contact with a different part of the elephant, and so each acquired a very different idea of what an elephant is like. They started to argue right away. The guy who found the elephant's tail says something like

Oh dear, you'll understand, I hope
The Elephant is very like a rope

to which the fellow who came across the elephant's leg replies

If you will please pardon me
The Elephant is very like a tree

I remember thinking that they were all very silly -- and that it is always very silly to think you know the whole story and to fight about your point of view.

As an adult I rediscovered the tale of the Seven Blind Men and the Elephant. It's a Sufi teaching story. In the Sufi story, the seven blind men go home after their experience of the elephant and each starts a Wisdom School in which they teach about Elephants. Each school attracts adherents. The adherents fight bitterly for the point of view of their respective schools -- hurting and even killing members of other schools. The elephant, meanwhile, is long gone.

There are a lot of levels at which this story works. One obvious point, though, is that, if you want to learn what an elephant is like, if you are blind, the best way is to find one and put your own hands on it. Then it's good to stay near it so you can keep learning. If you do this you will undoubtedly discover that elephants not only have a variety of very different parts but they also move around, make noise, eat, spray themselves, go swimming, have sex, have babies, and defecate.

A friend of mine is looking for a spiritual community. This caused me to want to define for myself what such a group of humans actually IS. At its best, I think, a spiritual community is a group of blind friends who go out together to form a relationship with an elephant. They might bring along some of the writings from the Seven Wisdom Schools on Elephants, but they will want to experience the elephant first hand -- and then they will want to talk about their experiences with one another -- and then go back and experience the elephant some more. The elephant will remain their focal point, present in their midst as it were.

Such an expedition has its hazards. Elephants are not tame beasts. Still, I have a happy little picture of them curled up together, elephant and humans alike, while everyone sleeps.

"If you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas," the old saying goes. If you lie down with elephants, what do you get up with? More importantly, what do you get up with when you lie down with The Divine?

The Wisdom traditions say you get up with a terminal case of knowing we are all One -- i.e. of love. This love transforms your life, the life of your spiritual community, and the world. You don't necessarily have to look for big visible signs of this love, transformation being something that often happens quietly in the dark, but on the other hand the big splashy effects are often there.

A spiritual community will show the effects of being in relationship with The Holy. In some way it will be changed, and therefore it will change what is around it. It will, as it were, bring the qualities of the elephant into the world. As Jesus, the ever-practical spiritual guide says, "you'll know 'em by their fruits.

Here's to the life-long exploration at our fingertips. And here's to our good friends who smell a little like elephant.