Seeing the Elephant

I have been reading several versions of this story. This is a combination of three:

An elephant was put on exhibition in a dark house. Crowds of people came to see this animal for the first time. They could not see in the dark, though, so they touched the animal.

The palm of one fell on the trunk. 'This creature is like a water-spout,’ he said.

The hand of another lighted on the elephant’s ear. To him the beat was evidently like a fan.

Another rubbed against its leg.‘I found the elephant’s shape is like a pillar,’ he said.

Another laid his hand on its back.‘Certainly this elephant was like a throne,’ he said.

The people began to quarrel about the nature of the elephant, shouting, "Yes it is!" "No, it is not!" "An elephant is not that!' 'Yes, it's like that!' and so on, till they came to blows over the matter. Unseeing and ignorant, the people were by
nature quarrelsome and disputatious, each maintaining reality is thus and thus.

The eye of the Sea is one thing and the foam another. Let the foam go, and gaze with the eye of the Sea. Day and night foam-flecks are flung from the sea, and you behold the foam but not the Sea. We are like boats dashing together; our eyes are darkened, yet we are in clear water. (Rumi)