Understanding

“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding, because to understand is to be free.” Baruch Spinoza Is it easier to judge or to understand? We often judge others and ourselves with an amount of information insufficient to form an accurate assessment. Also, our beliefs play a major role in how we judge and if we have poor, dis-empowering beliefs then our judgements are reflective of that and not only potentially creates pain for others but almost certainly provides repetitive pain for ourselves. Our view of ourselves and the world can only be accurate when we approach every situation as an unknown, when our way of seeing things is as fluid and malleable as the unfolding of events. This brings us to understanding. Understanding requires that we are always learning, always curious, always mindful that there’s more to know, this also enriches our moment by moment experience because we get to discover new things all the time with this approach. Our knowledge of people and life expands exponentially as a result and this enriches the experience of life in unexpected ways. As with all things it takes a bit of practice to do things in a different way but just like riding a bicycle, at first it feels awkward and unnatural but soon it feels natural and effortless. We don’t give up on learning to read or write or walk because we know the benefits of knowing how to do these things are fundamentally important to our quality of life. Approaching life with the intention of understanding is another such skill.