New Essay: Understanding Reality through Rashomon vs the Blind Men and the Elephant

In the essay that I shared in my previous post, I explored some big questions: What is reality? What is truth? And why do we so often clash about both?

Among other things, I briefly mentioned two metaphors that help illuminate our differences: the tale of the blind men and the elephant, and the story of Rashomon.

I have now written a follow-up essay that zooms in on those two stories. This essay will be included in my Newsletter #15.

If the previous essay was a wide-angle view—about truth, perception, and the paradoxes we live in—this new one focuses more narrowly on metaphor. It compares the hopeful image of the blind men trying to understand the elephant with the unsettling ambiguity of Rashomon. Together, these metaphors offer two different models of how humans experience and navigate reality.
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Here's an excerpt from the latest essay:

You’ve probably heard it. Several (in some versions, three) blind men come across an elephant for the first time. One touches its side and says, “It’s like a wall.” Another feels the trunk: “No, it’s like a snake.” A third grabs a leg and insists it’s like a tree trunk. They all argue, each sure they’re right. And in a way, they are right. But also… not really. Each of them has grasped a part of the whole, but because they won’t listen to each other, none of them understands the full picture.

It’s a popular metaphor for truth—and one that makes us feel hopeful. If we could just learn to listen to each other’s perspectives, then maybe we could combine them and arrive at a deeper understanding. It’s a bit like solving a jigsaw puzzle. Everyone has a piece, and if we put them together, we’ll finally see the elephant.

That’s how I used to think about it. I still find the metaphor useful. It encourages humility. It reminds us that each person sees the world from a different angle, shaped by culture, experience, emotion, and language. And it offers a model for how dialogue might help us make sense of reality.

But over time, I began to feel that something about this story didn’t quite fit. I started wondering: what if we’re not all touching the same elephant? What if we’re not even in the same room?..

Want to know more? Keep reading here!