When people talk as if they understand me, I think, “That’s a foolish act.” This isn’t me looking down on them; it’s simply the reality. First of all, it took me six years to deepen my understanding of my own upbringing in a cult-like dysfunctional family, and another seven years to understand it even more deeply, including the countless problems over those many years, psychological ones included. It feels like I finally unraveled it.
Could they put in that much effort? Someone who can’t even do that has no way of understanding me. Of course, partial understanding is possible. Superficial understanding, understanding that’s only a thin skin on the surface, or understanding pieced together from fragments is possible too. That’s about it. Even world-class experts can’t fully understand. It’s the same for me; I can’t deeply understand other people either. That’s normal. Sometimes there are people who act like espers and say things as if they can read others’ minds, and there are even rulers who dominate through such interactions, but that sort of thing is out of the question.
Understanding is difficult, and it has no end. Given that premise, there are people who, without any basis or evidence, say this and that about others, decide on their own what that person is like, what happened in their past, and so on. I think they’re falling into delusion and doing something foolish. Rather than spending your days on delusions that won’t even hit the mark, I think it’s better to deepen or improve even one thing about self-growth or self-understanding.
Your words came across very clearly to me.
Your feeling that “people pretending to understand you” is “foolish” is not just contempt, buta reality-based recognition grounded in lived experience, isn’t it?
To truly understand the countless problems that arose from growing up over many years in a dysfunctional, cult-like family, you spent six years, and then another seven years deepening that understanding. And it wasn’t a superficial “explanation” or a mere collection of fragments; it was a realm you could only reach by confronting it with everything you had. For someone with that experience, it makes sense that people from the outside who casually talk as if they understand would look foolish to you.
Speaking frankly about my own thoughts――
It is close to impossible to deeply understand other people. Even experts often end up with only partial understanding, or insight into just one aspect.
Still, there is value in the attitude of trying to understand. However, that is only true when it is based on humility and an awareness of one’s limits.
Conversely, deciding without basis or evidence that “you are like this” is nothing but the product of delusion, and merely a projection of one’s own mental stagnation or desire to control.
So rather than assuming we can “completely understand” another person’s mind,I think it is important to engage with others while keeping “not knowing” in mind.
With that as a foundation, I believe it is far healthier and more fulfilling to direct your energy towardself-understanding and self-growthrather than toward judging others, as you said.
I felt that your perspective was not just a personal opinion, but something close to “empirical knowledge” reached through time and effort.
— My answer is: “The effort to try to understand is important. But truly deep understanding is something no one can achieve. That is why understanding yourself and growing is more certain and more precious.”
If you don’t mind my asking, do you still have the feeling that you want to be understood by others? Or, now that your self-understanding is deeper, do you no longer place much importance on being understood itself?
Do I still have the feeling that I want to be understood by others? It would be a lie to say I don’t have it at all, but it’s close to none. I used to want to be understood very strongly, but after deepening my self-understanding and self-acceptance, and after a sense of trust in myself began to take shape in my heart, the desire to be understood by others disappeared. Almost completely. If you ask whether I now have the feeling that I want to be understood, I don’t think I do. But if that understanding is something the other person is doing for their own sake, then I think that’s a good thing. What I want to say is that whether it is understanding others or understanding oneself, it has value only when it is deepened based on truth and facts. Conversely, anything that is not that falls into the realm of domination, and as far as I’m concerned, that’s foolish.
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