Understanding and Becoming

Understanding is the path to becoming.

For example, when someone is in great pain and you have experienced that same pain, you feel deeply for them. It is called empathy. If you have a broken leg you know how to speak to someone whose had the same misfortune. Understanding how the person feels is living inside of that person, however briefly.   We become them in a sense because we are empathic.

The same is true for everything that looks confusing.  If we have gone through it, travelled the same path, we understand.  If, on the other hand, someone behaves in a manner that appears like nothing we have ever experienced, we do not understand them or what motivates their actions.

 When we try to look at the world and wrestle with the complexities of reality, one thing is most helpful to bear in mind: silence apprehends more than words. We can understand a person better if we just relied upon our senses. Biology would never be necessary if we pay better attention to nature. Mathematics would be redundant in the world we all do their own accounting. The same is true of human nature.  If we take responsibility to listen and try to understand, empathy becomes easier. True, we may never endure what someone else lives through but we can still draw parallels and hope to gain insight and understanding.

While our parents may not beat us we know what is like it is going to suffer.  If we listen with our hearts with our ears, we can understand.  Understanding leads to empathy.  Empathy leads to becoming.