Quotes About Understanding

It is possible that truth only exists when one has already specified the context or field within which one is speaking.

The vegetarian does not "see" (experience) meat on a rack in the butcher shop the same way the meat-eater sees it. The racist does not see a member of another race as, say, that person's parents do. More generally, as the Poet tells us: "The Fool sees not the same tree that the Wise Man sees.

Where scientists are legally or otherwise coerced away from certain areas of investigation, people do not all uniformly stop having experiences that such investigation might scientifically explain; people merely resort, by default, to pre-scientific models to explain the experiences.

All appearances seem to be facts, at first, to those to whom they appear.

Is there some connection between waking up in the mystic sense, and learning to read (or to see paintings, say) in an alert, non-mechanical way? One Zen master, when asked what Zen is, always replied with the single word, Attention. What the hell did he mean?

Indeed, Lao-Tse's famous paradox, The largest is within the smallest only begins to make sense to an Occidental after she or he has understood what non-local information means in modern physics.

What is tuned-in by Mr. A may not be tuned-in by Ms. B, but that does not mean that either of them is crazy or perverse. It merely means that every reality-tunnel encourages us to notice some things and ignore or forget other things.

Language structures demark our reality-tunnels. I mentioned that earlier, but it needs repeating.

Jesus Christ," she said. "You are just like him, a master of the fucking oblique answer.

The thing about monsters is, you want to kill them until you meet them, and when you meet them they don't seem monstrous, and killing them begins to seem unkind.

Mary sat, quiet and attentive and blank. It wasn't like talking to a dumb seventh-grader, it was like talking to a pancake.

But if I were a man," she said, "I imagine you wouldn't let me say it." "No," I said. "If I didn't need your help, I wouldn't let you say it.

Susan said. "Kindness is not dangerous. You have found a way to work and live which allows you to integrate the violence and the compassion. If you had no impulse to violence, your compassion wouldn't be so admirable. If you had no compassion, your violence would be intolerable. You understand what I'm saying?

walked out without a word. Fogarty nodded at Petrocelli

Perhaps you will want time to digest what we've discussed," she

We do much better," she said, "explaining why people did things than we do at predicting what they will do.

What do you do about people who don't like having your dog in their lap when they come to visit?" Farrell said. "We assume there is something wrong with them," Susan said. "And we try to help them.

Susan smiled the smile she always smiled when you knew she hadn't the slightest interest in what you were saying, and she knew it, and she knew you knew it.

It's awful to be alone, Jesse." "If you can't be alone," Jesse said

I sometimes think I know you entirely," I said. "You know me better than anyone ever has," Susan said. "And yet you're quite secretive," I said. "You surprise me often.

He do that with me, too," Susan said. "It drives me fucking crazy." "Gee," I said, "I was liking it better when we were talking about Hawk's problems." Susan smiled.

I read someplace that wanting to know everything about a person is wanting to possess them." "I believe that is probably true," Susan said.

Since when do you and I talk about the world," she said. "The world is what it is." "Yeah, I know." "Not only do you know, you've helped me to know." "Good to be useful," I said. "What has always made me respect you, even in the bad times, was your ability to look out at the world and see what's there. Not what you'd like to see, or even what you need to see, but simply what's there.

Tony's patois kept getting broader as we talked. Like Hawk, he seemed able to turn it on and off. "Sho 'nuff," he said.