2009-3-15 13:23:00
The Question:
Understanding comes when the person perceives, asks all the pertinent questions about the thing perceived and then comes up with the most logical answers.
Understanding also has three levels and this is the first.
What do you suppose are the other two?
Dan answers:
"1. Understanding of form through analysis/synthesis.
2. Understanding of soul (principles) through contemplation/intuition.
3. Understanding of spirit (purpose) through identification."
Ruth gave a similar answer giving us body, higher mind and soul.
In seeking answers like this it is always good to look at various levels of being and find correspondences. You are both following the right principle in finding answers to questions such as this.
So how would I describe the upper two levels of understanding?
As I said, the first level is accomplished through standard thinking and analyzing a subject until we see more than a spreadsheet of facts, but we see a bigger picture. We see how the facts fit together to create greater light on the subject.
To attain the next level of understanding one must access the plane of Buddha through the soul, or the source of true intuition. The seeker then understands through the comprehension of principles. In other words, he can see more than the first level deductive reasoning, but can see the bigger picture through seeing principles.
The third level of understanding takes the seeker to the level of spirit or up to the plane of atma, the realm where divine ideas originate. A divine idea may embrace many principles in its application and such a revelation beings an increase in understanding in the process of creation itself.
Dan asks:
"Are the three levels exclusive, or do the 'higher' levels incorporate/include/use the 'lower'? In other words, will one still use the 1st even if one 'uses' the 3rd?"
JJ:
There is a principle involved here. The higher always includes the lower, but the lower does not comprehend the higher. Higher levels of understanding thus use the lower when dealing with the physical plane.
"You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
-- Jack London (1876 - 1916)
Copyright © 2009 by J.J. Dewey, All Rights Reserved