Topics on different proverbial elephants?

The biggest 'elephant' that exist is so huge, that it includes totally all spaces of our earthen dimensions, and that is the 'fake reality' that humans have created since beginning of 'civilization'. Humans are starting slowly to become aware of some isolated parts of this 'elephant' but without being willing and ready to do a step further, - to question the construction of false images, beliefs, concepts, dreams, goals - , that is building up their self image, being identified with all this, having made ones property out of it. No body is really happy with it and all are suffering in a fight between that what they believe being their reality represented through their mindset and that what they encounter as facts in their daily life. People all are trying to ignore all what doesn't fit and confirms themselves and they are defending their viewpoints, world view and with this an existence that is an illusion and fake. That this fight for self confirmation doesn't really work, becomes obvious when we look around and see the results in our society and in every person around: Accumulation of stress, disappointment, frustration, depression, violence and finally destruction and disease. And even though this is very obvious and the symptoms are very clear, nobody puts the pieces together and sees the 'elephant'! Nobody wants to see this huge monster, artificially created through millenniums, even though all live in the shadow of it. It gives them the frame of their mindset and so a certain security and as they get their feeling of *existence* out of it, not knowing something more real, so people cling on their 'property' and don't want to let go of it, because the worst what they want to confront is the 'unknown', then they would loose the little self confidence they have and those with the blown up self confidence would loose all the air of their big balloons.

So it is understandable that hardly any body sees the 'elephant' and just hides ones head in the sand, - suffering, but not asking essential and critical questions...

Even though it becomes more and more obvious that humanity is stuck in their evolution and that there is gradually more destruction happening, what seems to be the only possibility left to break up the domination of the tight straitjacket humanity is living with.

If people could see the 'elephant' or to be able to receive some information about it, then they might also be open to take action about it and what they could do to leave their worn out skin, without too much pain, behind.

But honestly, I hardly can detect a sign that there will be a positive change in the attitude of people. Since more than fifty years my intention is, to make this 'elephant' visible, with such a poor result, that it comes near to zero. But not totally, because in all those years I have learned, that the most effective way to change 'humanity' is to start with oneself and that's what I have done and even though I can see the suffering and destruction the 'elephant' is causing, - I can remain within my condition that I have gained and then from there relate and respond to whatever shows up, - like now I do with your question...

This morning I was seriously wanting to make the decision to leave Yahoo! Answers, because lately I was feeling like an invisible 'elephant': My answers are not seen and I need to spend hours to find a question I feel I want to answer. But then your question appeared out of the mass and so I have withdrawn my decision and answered your special question! Thank you to give me another opportunity to stay and to express myself!

BeiYin

Your question is genius in the way that one can see and project into it what ever one wants or actually one is chewing on. At the same time it filters out the usual nonsense answers and I'm highly surprised about the 'outstanding' answers, that make me think and realise the dilemma I have been involved since quite some time. Why? Because I see something, nobody seems to see! There is an elephant and nobody sees him/her! Yes, a few people see a part of the 'elephant' and they get stuck and lost complaining about it, but never there is some body who sees the *whole* elephant!

Ok, so I see more and as part of what I see, is that the 'elephant' is too big, so nobody is able to see the whole elephant. Well, it is that nobody wants to see the whole, they are all content to complain about what they see. Or with other words: What they believe they are.

So what I see is, that the biggest 'elephant' is that we are all *one*, but that every individual sees oneself as unique and separated from all others, so seeing just a very small part of the 'elephant'. We all have the longing and the urge to unite with the 'elephant', what shows when we go into a relations ship with this urge, even though it mostly fails because we are expecting the completion from the other and then this doesn't work. So we are turned back to ourselves, - again and again, until we might find out, that we need to start with ourselves, - to realise the 'elephant within ourselves.

Is there any body who knows what I'm talking about?

How good it would be if we could all sit together and unite our energy, - just the *energy* of our presence, without talking! And then out of this there might come something that is more... Might it be that the 'elephant' becomes visible? Not again as a concept or a new belief system, but as a *reality*! A realised reality within ones life and state of being...

InkyPinkie

PS: I can only express what should be said with "..." because any words doesn't describe the 'elephant', - one just need to be the *elephant*!

EDIT: Seems yahoohoo beat me to it. It also seems it's from Thailand, not India as I stated. It's an item that you cannot, no matter how hard you seem to try, get rid of. The phrase comes from, I believe, India. The ruler would, if offended, give you a "white" elephant. Since it was an elephant it would eat... lots. If you were a peasant this would probably be the worst thing that could happen to you. Even if you had money it's not a good situation. You also can't give the elephant away, again because it was a gift and you don't want to insult the emperor, and you certainly can't kill it or you'd likely be punished for such an insult.

Questioning the elephant, we are questioning ourselves and this is the only thing that will bring light into our condition and make the 'elephant' visible. We will not be able to question our existence, that would go to far, even though we know that there is a huge 'elephant' that still is totally invisible. You are right, we only can do it one bite after the other. But then: How can we bite the invisible 'elephant'?

I guess this is only possible starting there, were the effects show up and that is in our conditioning. Now how can we find out what our conditioning is, the manipulation that has been done to us all? I see the possibility for this in our daily life. In our confrontation with daily happenings and encounter with people. We are constantly *reacting* and this is our defense or confirmation system that is 'comparing' the daily reality with our established mindset how we want reality to be, how we want to see ourselves and how we want that other people see us. And as daily reality is mostly totally different, even though we are trying constantly to change it or to press it into a form, we are *reacting*. If we are conscious about our reaction, then we might also become aware about our background program on what we are depending and that are causing our reactions. Then, being conscious about it, we will be able to go beyond, so it will drop by itself. 'One bite after the other' - Until the 'elephant' becomes visible...

Bo

With your question and the answers there is a 'new area' showing up at Yahoo!Answers! It is a start to go into another dimension, beyond the silly question/answer games, that only serve as entertainment or to get attention from others, to confirm that one believes to be, comforting an elephant that is artificially blown up into a dominating fake reality. It is probably the most important, that this 'elephant' becomes visible, so that we can take a step towards *reality*.

Also we need urgently to discover the 'power elephant' and look behind all the manipulations that has been done on us, to make us to slaves, followers and consumer, dump and dull depending on a mindset, that puts us in a straitjacket! It should be enough by now and the time to wake up, - before we all are left on an uninhabitable earth, while those few people who have brought us into this situation, leave to go to another planet they found already and now will conquer. But that's not our problem now, we have to deal with our condition and so it is urgent that we make those 'elephants' visible before they trample us all down into dust! The tragical is, that we are doing it ourselves, because we are the elephant we are holding tied because we are totally identified with all our destructive habits and behavior.

Can we come together and make a strategy about what could be done?

Foo

If I understand you right, then the 'elephant' is all that what I don't know and this of course then is a pretty big 'elephant' and invisible to me. But then on the other hand there is this kind of 'invisible elephant' that consist in that what I know about myself and the world and that seems to be visible, but in reality it is not, because it is built up by all kind of unknown sources. It makes me believe that I'm living in a 'real' world, but it is just bound to my perception and the mindset I'm identified with and I agree with some one said in his/her answer, that this is pretty much blown up like an elephant, often floating in the air like a balloon.

I can understand now that the difficulty lays in the fact, that with my conceptual mind, bound to a certain structure, I can't find an answer that might go beyond. as I am always comparing with what I already know and so trying to fit new things in and if this is not possible, then I just reject things or ignore them. I see now that this will not bring me beyond my so strong established personality. So I will stop this and will look out for a solution...

Thank you all for confronting me with my old conditioning and now looking out for the elephant in a different way!

This yahoo is an incredible place, I haven't expected a question and answers like this!

Emma

I have ask myself the same question: "I'm crazy?" So I looked up Wikipedia and read: ''Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others, though not all such acts are considered insanity. In modern usage insanity is most commonly encountered as an informal unscientific term denoting mental instability, or in the narrow legal context of the insanity defense. In the medical profession the term is now avoided in favor of diagnoses of specific mental illness such as schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.''

So now I know that I am crazy! Why? Because Wikipedia says it clearly: "Craziness may manifest as violations of social norms, including becoming a danger to themselves and others." I am NOT living social norms and so I must be crazy!

I found a good example when I searched about BeiYin, because I believe one can learn often more from people how they live and relate to their reality, than from what they are talking. I read his story about when he healed his inguinal hernia. (http://falconblanco.com/health/hernia.htm) He describes in his story that when the medical doctors and also healers and all around said that only surgery can repair an inguinal hernia, then even though he decided not to go for surgery and then he looked for an alternative way. He searched the Internet and found hundred thousands of Web sites about hernia but all about surgery. So then when he still said that he would heal himself, every body thought and said: "This guy is crazy!" Now, when he healed his hernia against all the opposite established opinion of every body, then doesn't with this the question show up: Who is the crazy one??? The fact that he healed himself should have provoked some questions and doubts about the established truth (!) but nobody has been asking any question during the last five years, - so that the earth can stay flat... Again: Who is the crazy one???

Let's be clear about it: If you and me are not joining the established norms of this society with all those concepts, belief systems and what ever that has built up the world view of people, then it is pretty clear that not we are the crazy ones, but that we are the ones who are on the way of healing ourselves, getting out of the straitjacket of established norms.

OK, we are living in this society and we are part of it. We respect what is there, but that doesn't mean that we must stay blind! We can see the 'elephant' and so relate to this reality out of our self responsibility that is part of our state of being! Right?

Yes, we have the difficulty that we stay pretty much alone in our position, but also we are secure, even though we might not be able to explain from where this 'certainty' comes, because it's not from a concept or a belief system...

You are right: The fact that a few people are coming together, building a kind of 'round table', within a space that is still bound to the established mindset, - is something that is new and we might explore it...

Rahmona

PS: The 'elephant' is not so big as it seems, it is just because he is 'invisible' and is effecting every one in such an profound way and the problem is, that WE ARE the elephant! Carrying him along with us, like a 20 kg oxygen bottle breathing out of it, not willing and being able to drop it and just breath the existing fresh air around! It would be so simple! What is it that stops us to do this step going beyond our 'mindset'???

Your question let me remember the story about several blind men who were investigating an elephant. So one said: "An elephant is a round thing with a hole at one side were warm air comes out". Another blind man said: "An elephant is something round that stands on the floor." Another blind said: "No, you are all wrong. An elephant is something thin that moves constantly and has hair at the end."

So they were completely satisfied with their findings and they could talk about it for hours trying to convince the others. They were not even interested to hear about the opinion from some one who is not blind. They had made up their picture of the elephant and that was enough for them.

Isn't that our situation in this society? Hardly anybody is questioning it, but we need to do something and I'm very surprised that questions like yours and those amazing answers are showing up. Thank you all!

Teddy

Good luck with that.......it is a high road to a collective understanding....I admire you for it

and aspire myself

Still ....not a bad thing but........ I think you will find most people....and all people sometimes

View life through their own needs...and agenda

And have very limited vision for the really "dangerous"......elephants

They are however aware of the negative concepts/ traits employed by the dangerous elephants

Because many use them to attain their personal individual agenda

if they are inclined that way

So eyes stay closed.......and day to day existance rules the world

OR someone who understands that does

Driving high: this doesn't get nearly as much focus as drunk driving does but I believe it occurs more frequently as people feel it is harder to get caught (no breathalyzer)

Emotional abuse in relationships: people believe that this issue is addressed.. it is NOT! I have so many friends in relationships that are not normal, the way their boyfriends / girlfriends speak to them is unnacceptable but everyone is too afraid to mention it because they get offended and defensive. The signs need to be more widely known, these people have no idea that the way they are spoken to is not okay!

functional addicts: At least this is what I call them. Just because you are able to go to school and havent lost your job, it is not okay that you're contantly on drugs! I think that people who are addicted to drugs but maintain high grades assume that they're still fine; however functional you are,it i still an addiction.

those are three (maybe obvious?) ones but they are so close to me in my daily life that I wish they would be addressed! and if you have already thought of these, i'd love to hear your info on them!