Elaboration of “What Does It Mean to Understand Something?”

It’s very important to be able to identify how we know something. Some ways of knowing something are valid, some are not valid. When we think we understand something, we need to be able to discriminate if it is a correct understanding or an incorrect understanding. The Indian Buddhist tradition of logic and analysis is a very useful tool that helps us learn how to analyze ourselves, experiences and phenomena. The whole point of Dharma training is to learn how to figure things out and analyze properly. If we can analyze something properly, we’ve understood it. We need to understand ourselves and our behavior in order to be able to improve it if there’s something faulty with it.