Gaining True Understanding

In a recent blog post, Our Internal State Shapes Our Future Experiences, inspired by George MacDonald‘s Lilith, I discussed how our beliefs, character, and moral strength serve to be the primary shapers of our future experiences. And how external events are secondary; what truly affects us is how we respond internally. In that post I quoted Mr. Vane, the protagonist in Lilith, as having said, “That which is within a man, not that which lies beyond his vision, is the main factor in what is about to befall him: the operation upon him is the event.” In that same paragraph, Mr. Vane went on to say, “Foreseeing is not understanding, else surely the prophecy latent in man would come oftener to the surface,” which relates to my earlier post highlighting internal influence and personal responsibility by emphasizing that merely predicting or foreseeing events doesn’t equate to true comprehension or mastery over them.

In other words, just knowing or anticipating what might happen isn’t enough; true understanding—an internal, moral, and intellectual clarity—is necessary for actual insight and meaningful action. If we truly understood ourselves and our inner capabilities, our innate prophetic potential—an intuition or deeper awareness—would manifest more frequently.

This aligns with the notion that inner growth and moral character are vital: by cultivating understanding within ourselves, we can better influence our experiences and perhaps even realize our own prophetic insights more often. It’s a call to go beyond superficial anticipation toward genuine understanding and inner development.

Byron's Babbles