I’m writing about growth amidst change this week. And so I’m thinking about this a lot. Maybe people write to ingrain the ideas that come bubbling up from somewhere inside.
This idea comes from a teacher who isn’t a native English speaker, and like so many people who learn new languages there was more than likely an interest in the exact meaning of words. People learning new languages often walk around with dictionaries, it makes sense to keep expanding vocabulary. I know this, as my son and his wife moved to Italy recently. They are passionate about dictionaries.
As native English speakers we don’t spend much time thinking about the distinctions. We use words interchangeably and easily. I’m pretty sure that is a worldwide thing, that people speak their native languages that way too.
Oh I should say the teacher is a poet as well as a Mindfulness teacher. Poets have a keen interest in words too.
Wisdom, he said that day, is attainable knowledge of facts and figures. Wisdom is information that we strive to learn and retain. We want to master the topic, to plumb its depths.
Understanding is not so solid. It is an ongoing moment to moment awareness of what is happening, what I am thinking, what the other is thinking and feeling. Understanding flows, shifts and changes. It is not a goal to set, to achieve. It is not a mass of knowledge.
So, the teacher said, wisdom is like the boulder in the river, solid, a mass of knowledge, not changing. Understanding is the river itself, flowing, shifting,
fishing in the flow
taking on new information as it winds its way over the course of rocks and boulders and sticks and stones. Understanding is the fluidity, openness, not attached to outcome, but aware of the changes coming our way. That river just keeps moving, flowing over and through what lays ahead.
The teacher is Thich Nhat Hanh a Viet Namese monk, nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Martin Luther King, Jr. His books on Mindfulness are simple, thoughtful and especially helpful.
