Experience is the foundation of understanding.

A person lives their life without noticing anything outside of their nine to five routine. Years slide by, one after the other, without any deviation. Then, one day, for one reason or another, that person’s attention gets pulled out of their routines and they are forced to see so much more of what is going on around them. 

It is shocking at first. The first reflex is to think they know what they are seeing, but reality quickly abases them for that delusion. Then, naturally, they want to understand what they are witnessing, but all they can get is information… off the internet and television. Information is not understanding and does more to confuse and frustrate than it does to absolve. 

It takes time, but the experience of living with a new awareness becomes slightly less traumatic day after day. There is so much to learn, not from information, but from experience. It is experience that enables a person to parse through all the dross; to be able to compare real life with all the conflicting and confusing information available. But, most of all, it is the experience of our own emotions, and discovering our own intentions that build our confidence again.

Saying, with words, what we understand about something, or that we are concerned about something, is just giving people information. Information is not understanding. Experiencing ourselves acting in a new way, consciously making changes, altering our routines, is true understanding.

Enlightenment is a brutal, confusing, and utterly frustrating experience we all should feel blessed for going through.