How Do We Step into the Realm of “Understanding”?

It is clear to everyone that the problem of lack of understanding or misunderstanding is one of the most important challenges of individual and collective relations in our time, a time in which the body of individualism is more bloated than in the past.

In this brief note, I have tried to show a way through which we might be able to draw closer to the realm of “understanding”; of course, I know well that the process of “understanding” is a highly complex and ambiguous matter, and the following writing makes no claim whatsoever to encompass it, and is but a drop in the sea of its meanings...

Understanding is a matter of degrees. Understanding is not merely related to texts or the statements issued by an individual; rather, it can extend to the understanding of the “individual themselves,” meaning that “understanding” can occur beyond the words exchanged between us, in relation to the understanding of our very “selves.”

The statements issued by an individual are a manifestation of their thought, and, according to some, are that very thought. Gadamer showed that these statements are always imbued with presuppositions, pre-understandings, and prejudices; therefore, if we do not take into account the presuppositions, pre-understandings, and prejudices of an individual when judging their statements, a complete understanding will not be achieved.

Suppose someone acts aggressively towards you. If you merely reflect on the statements heard, and your understanding is limited to the meaning of their statements, you will react, and it is natural that conflict and confrontation will be the inevitable outcome of the affair. But if you go beyond the layer of statements, recognize the presuppositions and prejudices of the other person, and reflect on their “situation,” you might even be able to help them regain their point of equilibrium.

In fact, in this example, the second state is the drawing aside of the curtain of “their statements,” and consequently, the meeting and experience of “their very self”.... It is only in such a situation that beings “meet” one another, and as a result, an “existential” bond sprouts between two individuals, the fruit of which is “ecstasy and empathy.” This path may bring us closer to the realm of “understanding.”

In the majority of cases, and as Gadamer says, in all cases, individuals' statements are imbued with prejudices, pre-understandings, and presuppositions, which settle like a veil upon the essence of the individual's being.

“Man is hidden beneath the tongue, This tongue is a veil upon the threshold of the soul.” Rumi

On the other hand, since not only statements, but also our understanding and reception of statements are imbued with these, to achieve understanding, perhaps no way can be found other than what the mystics have laid before us... which is “thinking the best” or, as Gadamer says, “positive prejudice.” That is, to try always to look at one another through gentle and delicate spectacles, spectacles that transcend statements and behold beings... “Open the eye of the heart, that you may see the soul, That which is invisible, you may see.” Hatef Esfahani

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How Do We Step into the Realm of “Understanding”?

Mehrdad Rahmani

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