The Blind Men and the Elephant
The story of the Blind Men and the Elephant, as a parable regarding the fact that people tend to understand only a tiny portion of Reality and then extrapolate all manner of dogmas from that, each claiming only his one is the correct version, has re-appeared a number of times in both Western and Oriental thought. I have even seen a Unification Church ("Moonie") pamphlet entitled "The Whole Elephant".
original version from the Buddhist canon
A western version, by the American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816 - 1887)
Edith Feistner and Alfred Holl, 
"Mono-perspective views of multi-perspectivity: Information systems modeling and "The blind men and the elephant". Växjö: Växjö University Press 2006 (rather technical online multidisciplinary essay, bringing together the perspectives of computer sciences and cultural history, tracing the history and use of this parable in detail)
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