In recent years I’ve realized there is more to meets the eye when it comes to learning, understanding, and knowing. Perhaps, these three cannot be fathomed, and so they are confused and looked upon as one. I’ve attempted to put in plain words the differences I see, but words fall short. A few days ago I fell into another discussion with Luke (older son) and my wife when I blurted out “people don’t learn anything.” My word, in writing that down just now, I don’t even agree with myself! (I confess, I often blurt stuff out, which in the wake produces grist for my mind’s mill. ) Continue reading ‘Learning What You Know’
Tag Archive for 'knowing'
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Beyond words
Years ago I began to notice that I was incapable of really being in the moment when I was speaking – or even while I was thinking! In other words, when I’m speaking, I’m not reporting from an instantaneous state of knowing. Rather, I am passing on things I’ve already thought through some what. Speech references past experience, if even only a moment old. It is not of the ‘now’. ‘Now’ is all I can truly know. The rest is only a partial view, after-thoughts, of the ‘nows’ dead and gone. On the other hand… Continue reading ‘He Who Speaks Does Not Know, but…’
It seems my mind is always tempted to look toward ‘tomorrow’, whether ‘tomorrow’ is five minutes from now or five week from now. I reckon it is the hunter gather instinct that is driving this, for I see it occurring in everyone I know. We are always jumping out ahead of the moment. Why? Because we can. The mind’s space is larger than most mundane moments can stimulate. It seeks greener pastures, i.e., the hunter gather drive to look for that tasty tidbit the certainly must lie ahead. Continue reading ‘The Future Takes Care Of Itself’
Of the two, students are obviously the most important consideration. After all, teachers can lead students to water, but thirst determines whether students drink. Thirst is the weak link. As chapter 41 puts it, When the best student hears about the way, he practices it assiduously; when the average student hears about the way, it seems to him one moment there and gone the next… and so on.
Never-the-less, cultures place great importance on the teacher, so what makes for a good teacher? Usually the answer centers on how capable the teacher is, and their command of the material. However, after home schooling my kids, I discovered the more important, yet under-recognized, side of teaching lay deeper. Continue reading ‘Teachers and Students’
A magazine's back cover c.1945
Today is my 67th year here on earth. The picture is a magazine’s back cover of me, at a lake in Arizona, in my birthday suit(1). From then until today, fate has been fortunate; I should have bitten the dust quite a few times by now. (I wrote about the first time in the blog Suicide Just Doesn’t Work.) As to my health, wealth and family, I couldn’t ask for more. Indeed, there are so many things to be happy for on this birthday, and every day. Don’t worry though, I’ll find a problem somewhere it that. Hmm, let me see… Continue reading ‘Keeping Birthday Happy’
'Dead men's words'
What is the difference between understand and know? Chapter 70 alludes to it perhaps when it states, ‘My words are very easy to understand and very easy to put into practice, yet no one in the world can understand them or put them into practice‘. Our cleverness at understanding is not matched by a comparable ability to know. The first, understanding, is theoretical. The later, knowing, is visceral. For example: Continue reading ‘I understand, but do I know?’
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