“Can I live without electricity today”?
If we are hesitating then ask ourselves another question, “can I live without Television, Refrigerator, Lights, and Computer”? The answer will be obviously ‘No, we can’t live without it’.
However, how many of us understand how electricity works before we switch them on? I do not know about you, but I always find all the ‘tom’, ‘ton’ and ‘tron’ words very abstract and confusing. However, these confusions or lack of understanding did not stop me from making use of electricity in my daily life to enable productivity and making my life more colorful and meaningful.
To me, I just need to know the existence of electricity, how to switch it ‘on’ and switch if ‘off’, and how to operate it safely for me to use them comfortably and effectively.
We’re using electricity so frequently these days that we don’t even consciously think of how it works anymore before we switch them on. However, when it comes to relationship or dealing with people, we are so afraid of having one because we do not understand the other party.
One thing we never fail to say when fall out of a relationship, is that – “I can never understand him/her….”
However, the secret in having a harmonious relationship only requires us to understand ourselves, not the others. We only need to know the other person
· if he/she is able to enhance and add value to our life journey,
· what are the possible watch-out areas, such as over-indulgent in eating, drinking, sex, gambling, drug, or anything where it may be in conflict with our values, believes and behaviors. All these can easily put a strain in the bonds of our delicate relationship fabrics.
· do we have a plan and competency to handle these situations should it arise without hurting us.
The trouble of having to understand another person is an uphill stressful task because most of us do not even understand ourselves; hence, we cannot expect others to be able to understand us. That explains why many of us feel stressed in a relationship.
However, if we change our perspective, we change our life.
What is our new perspective then?
“Understanding ourselves is important in a relationship building, and we only need to know others in order to enjoy our relationship in our life journey with him/her…”.
So what is the different between understanding and knowing?
I would like to share with you an excerpt of a paper written by Dustin A Smith in 2006. It is called “What is Understanding…”
What is Understanding?
This paper will help us to understand understanding. Although it may be difficult to articulate what understanding is, people have no trouble identifying understanding, hence, I will start out with examples.
Let us look at a situation where we would hear someone says “does not understand” something. Suppose a young child came up to us and said, “If you drink too much, you will have a hangover.”
Yes, we agree with the child, but we may wonder: How did the child come to know this? Presumably, he learned this from someone else, and not from heavy drinking. However, does he understand what he is saying?
First, let us start with an extreme example. Maybe the child is just parroting a sequence of phonemes, such as:
“Ifyoudrinktoomuchthenyouwillhavahangover”
and do not even know where the words begin and end. But, more likely, the child will know what most of the words mean, and was able to establish some concept of relating the action:
“A person drinking too much to have the direct effect of causing the person to have a hangover”
Granted that the child has this ability to understand the link between an action and a consequence, but these are just regularities of the ways we compose our sentences (IF (X) THEN (Y)). Even if the child knows this much, does he recognize that drinking implies drinking alcohol and that a hangover is a headache? Surely he would have to know this much before we would finally agree that he understand what he is saying. Let us dwell into it deeper and ask the child:
You: What is a hangover?
Child: (Embarrassed) I don’t know
See, we were right, our straw child did not understand! But we would have granted the child more credit if he could have provided an answer we think is sensible:
You: What is a hangover?
Child: A headache
Now we are talking about understanding (and incrimination of the parents). What is understanding here?
“Understanding is the ability to connect a representation to many other representations. If we understand something in only one or two ways, we scarcely understand it at all.”
Here in Minsky’s explanation, we understand things when we have redundant connections and alternative routes, so that when one line of thinking fails, we are not stuck.
Having an index is the first step towards understanding
Look at these various symbols that all are associated with the word symbol apple:
Above are many cues which allow apple related memories to be retrieved. These memories may have different nature (company, fruit, computer, toy, food, plant, the word ‘apple’ …).
When we are reasoning about one of these, we may be using, or switching between, many representations at once.
Understanding is marked by interconnections, but the first step toward understanding is being able to find the right representation from our perception. In other words, we need to have a way to retrieve the correct associations in the first place – think of someone speaking a foreign language, where we are not sharing the same indices: we cannot “understand” them.
It is interesting to ponder how much of our representations are associated with perceptual cues, versus those indexed with language (reading, speaking) which require very little interaction with the environment.
Back to our example with the child. If the child was to have made the statement while we were drinking a glass of wine, then we would have demonstrated this indexing principle. We would imagine he made the connection between the statement – Drink Too Much with his observation of us drinking.
Understanding is answering the right questions
Another property of understanding is having the correct associations for a given index. There are no “correct associations” in absolutes, but we have generally agreed upon connotations for the concepts we try to communicate (some call them “denotations”). Some of these associations can activate other indices (see K-Lines). Recall how we discovered whether the child understood what he was saying: through interrogation. Answering typical questions about the topic is the hallmark of understanding.
What constitutes a typical question? Questions depend on the goal that we are pursuing, because the answer will allow us to fill in a slot on one of our representations or plans.
Another word understanding is the ability to think and act flexibly with what one knows. To put it another way, an understanding of a topic is a “flexible performance capability” with emphasis on the flexible. In keeping with this, learning for understanding is like learning a flexible performance – more like learning to improvise jazz or hold a good conversation or rock climb than learning the multiplication table or the dates of the presidents or F=MA.
Learning facts can be a crucial backdrop to learning for understanding, but learning facts is not learning for understanding.
If knowing is Not the Same as Understanding. So what is Understanding?
If I may reference to an article written by Professor Y.K. Ip, Department of Biological Sciences / Associate Director, CDTL. He said ‘knowing’ something is not the same as ‘understanding’ something. Worst still, students may take knowing the ‘definition’ of a term as understanding the ‘concept’ of the term, both of which are actually quite different.
Governed by the ‘learning as knowing’ metaphor, many students regard the teacher as a dispenser of information and themselves as the receiver of information. They aim to increase the amount of knowledge that they possess. They believe that learning outcomes can be evaluated by measuring the amount of knowledge acquired.
Learning involves getting the meaning of the knowledge…
However, learning involves getting the ‘meaning’ of the knowledge. Meaning is generated by the interplay between new information and existing concepts in the students’ mind. Without existing concepts, information can have no meaning. Learning is achieved through students selecting relevant information and interpreting it through their existing knowledge. As Resnick (1989) aptly noted, “learning occurs not by recording information but by interpreting it”. Hence, students are not recipients of knowledge but constructors of knowledge. How the student structures and processes knowledge is much more important than how much is learned.
Structuring and processing knowledge means that students must ‘select’, ‘organize’ and ‘integrate’ new information with prior knowledge in their mind. To do so, each student must acquire metacognitive (reflective) skills for controlling his/her cognitive (thinking) process during learning.
How do we understand something…
So, how do we understand something? To understand is ‘to comprehend’, and to comprehend is ‘to take in’ or embrace. Seeing solitary facts in relation to a general principle is the essence of understanding.
What is an understanding then?
An understanding is a generalized meaning or insight. An insight is a basic sense of, or feeling for, relationships; it is a meaning or discernment. A tested generalized insight is an understanding; it is a meaning or discernment that one may profitably apply to several or even many similar, but not necessarily identical, situations or processes.
The most valuable insights are those confirmed by enough similar cases to be generalized into an understanding. A student understands any object, process, ideas or fact if he/she sees how it can be used to fulfill some purpose or goal. The outcomes of a collection of understandings are generalizations, theories, generalized insights, general ideas, concepts, principles, rules and/or laws.
How do we achieve understand…
How do we achieve understanding? Well, ‘how’ we approach learning (strategy) depends on ‘why’ we want to learn it in the first place (motive) (Biggs, 1987). If we desire to learn springs from the urge to gain a paper qualification with minimal trouble or effort, it is likely that we will focus on what appears to be the most important topics (as defined by examinations) and reproduce them.
Because of this focus, we will not see interconnections between elements or the meanings and implications of what is learned.
However, if our motive to learn is based on curiosity, we will adopt a strategy to seek meaning. There is a personal commitment to learning, which means that we will relate the content to personally meaningful contexts or to existing prior knowledge, depending on the subject concerned. We will search for analogies, relate to previous knowledge, theorize about what is learned, and derive extensions and exceptions.
Ignorant and understanding…
Truth is simple, but understanding is complex. The tremendous, essential realities lay in front of our eyes at every moment. But our eyes are shut, and our heads are twisted away. We live on the surface, perceiving reflections and images, reacting to events, striving to make sense. The simple and obvious reality lies outside of us and inside of us, but it is elusive. As we advance, it retreats. Our perception itself distorts what we see. The tools we have at our disposal are blunt.
Understanding is a simple, universal, and under-utilized capacity, which we all have. There is no continuity between ignorance and understanding.
The differences between Ignorance and Understanding…
· Ignorance is the domination of a single truth, which subjugates all others. It holds tight to its minimal and narrow conceptions.
· Understanding liberates from bondage to appearances. It breaks shells, reveals secrets, and creates possibilities. A single inspiration is a resolution of an enigma, and knits together the torn fabric of our experience.
· Ignorance is sustainable, and it’s quite possible to live out one’s existence in a similitude of vitality, not ever seeing beyond the petty formulations of one’s original topography. This half-life can be relatively pleasurable, but only through a sustained effort to suppress the vital and self-evident reality, which continually emerges. Ignorance reveals its existence through discordant signals: the grind of disconnection, the clang of fear, the stench of mediocrity. These tokens of defeat are the key to our freedom, if we recognize them. If we don’t, we are enslaved by automatism. Our very identity is under occupation. In our heart is an alien power. With or without our consent, it has inserted itself, and we have submitted to it.
· Understanding is founded in a commitment to challenge the fixity in one’s perception, which produces illusory imagery. No insight can substitute for the love of truth, which brings to bear the totality of one’s capacity for perception. Giving all that one has, taking in all that one perceives: this dual action of discernment can penetrate the heart of distinct entities.
How to better our understanding…
Raise up the object of understanding, viewing it from every perspective. Turn to the parts that are unclear or uncomfortable, not just those that are intriguing or satisfying. What are the causes and effects, the origins and purposes? What is its place in the world, in nature, politics, and morality? What are the secret hopes and intentions?
At the periphery are conditional and ephemeral qualities, but every entity has a core truth, which animates and sustains it. See the circumstances, but then see through them, to the fundamental and universal truths at the center.
Understanding is not primarily an intellectual endeavor. It is a transformative process, in which one reaches towards embraces, and least for a moment, becomes the alien being. The rigidity of narrow formulations softens, and dissolves. The schismatic division between subjects is healed.
Understanding is barren without action…
If and when understanding is achieved, it is still only one expression of a broader human movement toward healing, connection, and unity.
Understanding, acting, creating, relation, and being all that we do, and all that we can do, is equally necessary for true reconciliation. While we each have a predilection to focus in one field, every function is necessary for the full development of every other.
Understanding is a necessary but insufficient condition for depth, love, and happiness. Bringing understanding to action, in the real world of relationship, art, and society, is a nobler task; and without this, even the magical process of understanding is barren.
Illustration of understanding in action…
A cup of coffee lies on the table, steaming, aromatic, fixed there at one place and time. Drink it and enjoy it, if we can. It’s not just what we want, and it’s not just what it seems.
There’s a meaning in there somewhere, a core truth. Lift it up in our mind and look at it from every perspective, until we find the cohesive element, which defines it and animates it. Seeing through circumstances, we can uncover the fundamental elements that constitute it.
What is its origin? Under what circumstances, and for what purpose was it created? What is its place in the political, economic, and moral order? Who and what interests does it serve?
Interpenetrating awareness illuminates the present…
The present moment can be redeemed from superficiality. Behind the static semblance, the living fiery truth is there. Interpenetrating awareness illuminates the present. The bits and pieces of our experience reunite, and even the simple perception is infused with vitality.
Understanding is beautiful…
The word “understand” is beautiful – quoted from the author Ajayniranjan. When we are in meditation everything “stands under” us, we are far above it. That is the meaning of understanding.
Everything is there far below, so we can see.
We have bird’s-eye view. We can see the whole from our altitude.
Intellectual can not see it; because it is on the same plane.
“Understanding happens only when the problem is on plane and we are on a higher plane. If we are functioning on the same plan as the problem, understanding is not possible. We will only misunderstand…”
Conclusion
We, the human beings are meant for community living. We do not have to understand everything around us to fit into our community or society. However, we need to understand ourselves well to be a team player and contribute our strength to the nature, society, community, our family and friends.
Hence, if we want to lead a meaningful and a peaceful life, we need to understand
· the Law of Nature that govern our universe;
· the Law of Social Living that enable us to co-exist, and live harmoniously in our community with on another;
· Ourselves from within; be comfortable and in peace with ourselves.
· Last of all, have the courage and faith to put our understandings into action. Through actions, we validate our understandings; through validations, we enhance and refine our understandings.
Nature luvr
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