How “Understanding” Leads to Enjoyment in Life

A Modest But Consequential Word

On the way to becoming a chief executive officer, one of my mentors left me with an aphorism on succeeding in management: One key to managing an organization is “understanding” people.

This mentor, credentialed with an MBA from Harvard, would say that he always wondered why he had so many classes about human resources and people. After entering the world of management, he wondered why there were not more classes on the topic.

“Understanding” is not a very striking word. It almost seems too soft to be important…like a word that’s been around forever and we should all know its meaning intuitively.

But, the word is important and has existed for centuries in the minds of great teachers of life and spirit; like Buddha or Hebrew prophets or Jesus and others.

Thich Nhat Hanh, a Vietnamese monk and author of “Living Buddha, Living Christ,” writes about the Buddha teaching as it relates to suffering:

“Understanding is the process of looking deeply…you are not the only person who suffers. Your sisters and your brothers also suffer. The moment you see the suffering in them and if you believe that your suffering is created by the people around you, you have to look again. Most of your suffering comes from the lack of understanding of yourself and others.

“When understanding arises, love and acceptance will also arise, and they will bring…