Reading guide
A city of disputes
Several ascetics, brahmins, and wanderers “of various other religions” are residing in Sāvatthī, “holding different views, beliefs, and opinions.” The text lists exactly ten positions they hold, each stated by its proponents as “the only truth, anything else is futile”: that the cosmos is eternal, or not eternal, or finite, or infinite; that the soul and the body are one and the same, or that they are different things; and, on the question of what happens to “a realized one” after death, that he still exists, that he no longer exists, that he both still exists and no longer exists, or that he neither still exists nor no longer exists. This is, point for point, the classic list elsewhere called the “undecided questions” — famous chiefly because the Buddha is elsewhere recorded declining to take a position on any of them, rather than adjudicating between the options.
Mendicants report the noise
Returning from their alms round, several mendicants tell the Buddha what they’ve found: the various ascetics “fighting, quarreling, and disputing, continually wounding each other with barbed words,” each insisting “such is Truth, such is not Truth!” against everyone else’s equally confident claim.
The parable
The Buddha’s diagnosis is blunt: “The wanderers of other religions are blind and sightless. They don’t understand what is beneficial or what is not beneficial, nor what is the truth and what is not the truth.” He then tells a story set in the very city they’re standing in. A king of Sāvatthī once had all the people “blind from birth” in the city gathered together, then had each of them shown one part of an elephant — the head, ear, tusk, trunk, flank, leg, thigh, tail, or the tip of the tail — each time saying only, “Here is the elephant.” When the king then asked the assembled group what an elephant is like, each answered strictly according to the single part they had touched: a pot, a winnowing fan, a ploughshare, a draft-pole, a storehouse, a pillar, a mortar, a pestle, a broom. Each insisted the others were wrong — “such is an elephant, not such!” — until they were punching each other over it. The text’s final detail is worth sitting with: “at that, the king was pleased.” It is a startlingly dry, almost cruel touch for a canonical parable, and the text does not soften it.
The chapter’s namesake
The phrase used for the men the king gathers — “blind from birth” — is jaccandha in Pali. This chapter of the Udāna is titled, in Pali, the Jaccandhavagga: almost certainly named for exactly this parable, making Ud 6.4 not just the opening sutta of Chapter 6 but the source of the chapter’s own name.
The heartfelt saying
The closing verse ties the parable directly back to the disputing ascetics: “Some ascetics and brahmins, it seems, cling to these things. Arguing, they dispute, the folk who see just one part.” Unlike some of the Udāna’s more oblique closing verses, this one names its own image outright — there is no ambiguity here about what “one part” refers to.
Key terms
The text
§1So I have heard. At one time the Buddha was staying near Sāvatthī in Jeta’s Grove, Anāthapiṇḍika’s monastery. Now at that time several ascetics, brahmins, and wanderers who followed various other religions were residing in Sāvatthī, holding different views, beliefs, and opinions, relying on different views.
§2There were some ascetics and brahmins who had this doctrine and view: “The cosmos is eternal. This is the only truth, anything else is futile.”
§3–11Others held views such as the following, each regarding their own view as true and others as silly:
- “The cosmos is not eternal.”
- “The cosmos is finite.”
- “The cosmos is infinite.”
- “The soul and the body are one and the same.”
- “The soul is one thing, the body another.”
- “A realized one still exists after death.”
- “A realized one no longer exists after death.”
- “A realized one both still exists and no longer exists after death.”
- “A realized one neither still exists nor no longer exists after death.”
§12They were fighting, quarreling, and disputing, continually wounding each other with barbed words: “Such is Truth, such is not Truth! Such is not Truth, such is Truth!”
§13Then several mendicants robed up in the morning and, taking their bowls and robes, entered Sāvatthī for alms. Then, after the meal, when they returned from almsround, they went up to the Buddha, bowed, sat down to one side, and told him what was happening. The Buddha said:
§16“The wanderers of other religions are blind and sightless. They don’t understand what is beneficial or what is not beneficial, nor what is the truth and what is not the truth. That’s why they are fighting, quarreling, and disputing, continually wounding each other with barbed words.
§17Once upon a time, mendicants, right here in Sāvatthī there was a certain king. Then the king addressed a man, ‘Please, my man, gather all those blind from birth throughout Sāvatthī and bring them together in one place.’ ‘Yes, Your Majesty,’ that man replied. He did as the king asked, then said to him, ‘Your Majesty, the blind people throughout Sāvatthī have been gathered.’ ‘Well then, lad, show them an elephant.’ ‘Yes, Your Majesty,’ that man replied. He did as the king asked.
§18To each, in turn, the man showed only one part, saying each time, “Here is the elephant”:
- to some, the elephant’s head
- to some, its ear
- to some, its tusk
- to some, its trunk
- to some, its flank
- to some, its leg
- to some, its thigh
- to some, its tail
- to some, the tip of its tail
§19Then he approached the king and said, ‘Your Majesty, the blind people have been shown the elephant. Please go at your convenience.’
§20Then the king went up to the blind people and said, ‘Have you seen the elephant?’ ‘Yes, Your Majesty, we have been shown the elephant.’ ‘Then tell us, what kind of thing is an elephant?’
§21–29Each group answered strictly according to the one part they had been shown:
- Shown the head: “An elephant is like a pot.”
- Shown the ear: “An elephant is like a winnowing fan.”
- Shown the tusk: “An elephant is like a ploughshare.”
- Shown the trunk: “An elephant is like a draft-pole.”
- Shown the flank: “An elephant is like a storehouse.”
- Shown the leg: “An elephant is like a pillar.”
- Shown the thigh: “An elephant is like a mortar.”
- Shown the tail: “An elephant is like a pestle.”
- Shown the tip of the tail: “An elephant is like a broom.”
§30Saying, ‘Such is an elephant, not such! Such is not an elephant, such is!’ they punched each other with their fists. At that, the king was pleased.
§31In the same way, mendicants, the wanderers of other religions are blind and sightless. They don’t understand what is beneficial or what is not beneficial, nor what is the truth and what is not the truth. That’s why they are fighting, quarreling, and disputing, continually wounding each other with barbed words. ‘Such is Truth, such is not! Such is not Truth, such is!’”
§32Then, understanding this matter, on that occasion the Buddha expressed this heartfelt sentiment:
§33“Some ascetics and brahmins, it seems, cling to these things. Arguing, they dispute, the folk who see just one part.”
Self-check quiz
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