Being Mindful Stories

Analogy · Ajahn Brahm

Seven blind Australians and the kangaroo

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Real Life | Ajahn Brahm | 3 Jun 2016

2 min read

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

once there were seven blind Australians and they've never ever seen a kangaroo before even living in this country but they always they've heard about a kangaroo and they wonder what a kangaroo actually is so they decided you know the seven blind Australians so go and find a kangaroo and feeling find out what a kangaroo really is so one of them managed to find a kangaroo and felt the tail and fair oh the tail that's like a snake and the one who felt the legs said oh no no elephant is a boomerang is this way the bent the one who felt the pouch said oh an elephant is a handbag a lady's handbag one who felt the Joey inside said an elephant is a teddy bear I'm making this up as I go along by the way the one who felt the if you ever seen the kangaroo's pores it's a back scratcher you know if you're using a bathroom it's scratch the one who fell how where am I going now one of felt the the ears what's the ears like the ears like a radar because they go back and those are the ears actually move different directions and the one who felt their head wasn't going to be the head it's like it's like a deer isn't it so they all argued one elephant was an elephant because elephant is a boomerang no it's not it's a snake that's a back scratcher it's a Hermes bag handbag for women now it's got two heads one of the top one at the bottom oh the middle rather and they all argued about what an kangaroo was now the point of that similarly you know it's usually just a simile of the no blind man and the the elephant the purpose of that simile is to point out that each one of these were people were right you know the one who felt the tail actually felt the tail they weren't imagining this it wasn't some sort of Illusion on drugs or something it actually felt it it was real and to them it did appear like a snake and the one who felt sort of the the pout it does feel like a lady's handbag if you've never actually seen it before and it's nice and soft it's beautiful every one of those thought they were right because they had person experience and now you can understand why we argue with one another because we always really believe that we are right and we've got reasons for that our experience our knowledge our research on the internet I've researched it it's right you research something else other people on the Internet is find something totally different now this is a problem because we always think we're right just like we think just because it goes quack quack it has to be a duck we found that later on we are wrong how many times have you been wrong in life how many times you really really really really really really thought you were right and you turned out to be wrong each one of us has I have many times

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 27:04 (to 30:20)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

Seven blind Australians feel a kangaroo: a snake, a boomerang, a handbag, a teddy bear. Each is sure, and they fight. We all argue from our own small piece of experience. Remember how often you've been sure and wrong. 'I could be wrong' keeps the peace with the people you love.

In brief (our summary)

Brahm adapts the blind-men-and-elephant into seven blind Australians feeling a kangaroo — tail like a snake, legs like a boomerang, pouch like a handbag, joey like a teddy bear — each sure they are right from personal experience, then arguing. Point: we argue because we believe we are right from our piece of experience.

Teaching point

Partial experience feels like the whole truth; that is why we fight.

When this story may help

  • arguments
  • religious disputes
  • being sure you are right

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Real Life | Ajahn Brahm | 3 Jun 2016 · 2016-06-03 · ▶ watch from 27:04 to 30:20 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'elephant' slips in as caption/speech mix with kangaroo.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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