Asked the student: "Wise man, in the drawing excercise you asked us to depict our favourite deity. Some of us drew the same gods, but we drew them very differently. Shouldn't we all see the same gods, and shouldn't we all have drawn those gods the same way?"
Responded the teacher: "Are you the same as your fellow students?"
Answered the student: "In some ways I am, but in others I am different."
Asked the teacher: "What makes you different from your fellow students?"
Answered the student: "My family, my parents who raised me, my history, the town where I used to live, they all shape who I am. Those all are different from the other students, which makes me different from them."
The teacher nodded and said: "Therein lies the answer to your question."
Asked the student: "Me being different from the others causes me to depict gods differently? Even when the gods themselves are the same?"
Answered the teacher: "Who we are and what we know, influences everything... including our depictions of deity."
Asked the student: "But we all see this chair the same way; why should deities differ?"
Responded the teacher: "How is it that you compare a deity to a chair?", and left the student to ponder.
Answered the student: "In some ways I am, but in others I am different."
Asked the teacher: "What makes you different from your fellow students?"
Answered the student: "My family, my parents who raised me, my history, the town where I used to live, they all shape who I am. Those all are different from the other students, which makes me different from them."
The teacher nodded and said: "Therein lies the answer to your question."
Asked the student: "Me being different from the others causes me to depict gods differently? Even when the gods themselves are the same?"
Answered the teacher: "Who we are and what we know, influences everything... including our depictions of deity."
Asked the student: "But we all see this chair the same way; why should deities differ?"
Responded the teacher: "How is it that you compare a deity to a chair?", and left the student to ponder.