The Awareness Of Understanding

Great understanding is broad and unhurried, Little understanding is cramped and busy.

Chuang Tzu, the 4th century BCE Chinese philosopher, was influential in the development of Chan Buddhism, which is also known as Zen. Two important actions within the human psyche are understanding and awareness. Understanding and awareness have no limits until we create them. Understanding, as we define it, is the knowledge of grasping an idea within our mental process. Awareness is the wisdom within that idea and process. Within the self-created boundaries of our understanding we experience the action of energy within each idea. Each idea expands our mental process, and the perception of who we are. We communicate that perception in several ways.

We may perceive understanding causes pain and suffering. If we do, our awareness of who we are sits in a pool of doubt. We may perceive understanding as power. If we do, our awareness of who we are is enriched by that perception. Either way, our perception of understanding and awareness changes who we think we are.

The world, as we know it now, is separated by our understanding of it. To some of us, the world is cramped and busy, and for others it is broad and unhurried. Each perception is valid to the perceiver. Each perception expands the awareness of understanding in some way.

As Chuang Tzu said: There is no good or bad, only thinking makes it so.

We think we understand what we are aware of now, and tomorrow we think we will still be aware of what we understood yesterday. But awareness and understanding are not really measured in time. They are measured by our perception of the energy within our experiences. Who we think we are changes when the action of energy within our understanding and awareness is altered by our perception of the energy experienced in each action.