Even though a spider knows to make a web to catch a fly, does she understand what or why? A beavers know how to make a dam but does he understand how it’s done? Perhaps the difference between knowing and understanding hinges on words (language). I’ve noticed, moreover, that neither tends to lead to the other (if anything understanding may postpone knowing).

For instance, when I began going barefoot full time the calluses on my feet began cracking. I quickly understood that if I picked them enough they would bleed and feel worse. Despite that understanding, once I start picking it is hard to stop – emotionally. It’s like eating potato chips. Yes, knowing when to stop one can be free from danger. This experience shows the difference between knowing and understanding. When, holding firmly to stillness, I ‘tune in’ and settle down, I easily ‘know when to stop‘. It has nothing to do with thinking or understanding. Indeed, those never actually bring me to ‘stop in time‘.

Here’s another example. I understand how to play a mandolin, and that allows me to ‘fake it’ a bit. My younger son Kyle knows how to play mandolin marvelously, yet he doesn’t understand how he does it. Alas, some things we understand, some things we know. There exists such a chasm between the two, and yet it seems we tend to think of them as synonymous. Curious.

Certainly the dictionary deems understanding and knowing as synonymous. I just don’t know of a word which conveys the difference I see here, and which the following seems to allude to as well: To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

Note: The lines in italics are ones borrowed from the Tao Te Ching. No copyrights were infringed however; that writing is 2500 years old… at least.