"A house belonging to a rich man was closely guarded. This apart, a ferocious dog was chained to a pillar at the gate. The dog and the chain however were skillful pieces of art turned out by an excellent sculptor. In reality they were just pieces of stone which appeared lifelike.
A pedestrian passing by, once took fright at the sight of the ferocious animal and hurt himself in his hurried attempt to dodge it. A kindly neighbor took pity on him, and showed him that it was not a living dog. When the man passed by it the next time, he admired the skill of the sculptor and forgot his old experience. Thus when he found it to be a dog, he could not see the stone of which it was made; and again when he saw it as a piece of sculpture, he did not see the dog of which he was earlier afraid. Hence the proverb. Compare this with "The elephant hides the wood and the wood hides the elephant." In this case, it is an "elephant made of wood."
The point is that you cannot see both at the same time. The eye cannot adjust itself to seeing both at the same instant. If it sees one, it does not see the other; it has to readjust its sight. There are pictures which when looked at casually reveal the outlines of an old hag; now look at the picture carefully, and you will discern the face of a young lady.
Thus, if you only see the world and get fully involved with it, then you are bound to compare, contrast, measure things and conclude which among them is the larger and the smaller; the high and the low, the beautiful and the ugly, along with many other classifications. This is, of course, inevitable when you are dealing with affairs of the world in a practical manner. Measurement, classification, categorization. division are all necessary with material things. But one needs to be careful when dealing with forms of life, especially with the highest kind which is the human being.
For certain practical reasons a human being is no doubt classified as an American. or a Chinese or whatever other race he is supposed to belong to. But these are only names given by man; similar is the religious faith to which a man adheres which is another label, however attached he may be to that label, and might even harm another with a different label because of his ignorance.
A man has to be put into the "business class" or the "economy class" depending upon what he has paid, provided with vegetarian or non vegetarian food according to his choice. Such division has its practical utility in matters relating to the world, but is utterly useless if not positively harmful, when you have to show consideration, courtesy, and helpfulness to a human being irrespective of the community, creed or race to which he belongs. In these matters, if the mind attempts to divide, which it is attempting to do, it will never be able to see a human being who might need help, succor, sympathy, understanding and love; instead the mind will only see a Japanese, Russian or someone else alien to its culture possibly leading to indifference and neglect.
The divisive mind will never be able to look at the whole, the totality, and
can only function in a narrow and selfish manner, thereby forfeiting its claims
for love, affection, and beauty essential for a human being. To flower as a
real human being one needs to discover the essential oneness of humanity, which
is you, through inquiry and a sharp insight. Once this is discovered, a man
can station himself firmly in this holistic outlook, and then deal with the
"particular" without any difficulty, reverting back to his meditative wholeness,
as soon as the matter on hand is disposed of adequately. His actions, even when
dealing with matters of the world will continue to be guided by the vision he
enjoys of the whole.