“A true voyage of discovery is not to seek new landscapes, but to acquire new eyes.”
– Marcel Proust
Have you ever read something and not understood it, but felt that something important was written there?
This happened recently when I was studying Thoughts without thinking By Buddhist Mark Epstein and Freudian psychoanalyst which helped bring the two intellectual disciplines together.
The title itself is provocative. As Epstein began to explain the deeper meaning behind it, I felt it go over my head.
I followed logic. Clinging to lust and lust is the source of suffering. If we free ourselves attachment By separating the self—and the thinker from the thoughts—perhaps we can achieve greater calmness and peace.
Thoughts were just thoughts.
It sounds profound, but I can’t say I fully understand it.
Such moments often occur when we encounter ideas that are beyond our current mental framework. We can follow words and logic, but still the deep meaning cannot be reached.
So what should we do next?
My suggestion is: hold on. Park it.
Instead of cataloging what you understand, start collecting what you understand did not
This is something my younger self would not have done.
Most of the time I would light the passage and move on. When I finished a book or article, I summarized what I understood. The essence of the book was stored in the bank of my brain, but the things I did not understand quietly disappeared.
But there’s something meaningful about coming up with an idea you don’t fully understand that you feel is important nonetheless.
This is a sign of feeling.
Something in the thought is striking you. It resonates, though you can’t quite figure out why yet.
Journaling this can help. But don’t just let it go. Don’t let your current version miss it just because it doesn’t understand it yet.
Maybe one day, more experience and a bit later wisdomin a flash, the meaning becomes clear at once.
Psychologists sometimes call this incubation, a process by which ideas that we cannot yet grasp continue to work quietly in the background of the mind. Neuroscientists who study insight find that the brain often continues to work on problems outside of conscious awareness, and sometimes suddenly says “Aha!” a moment when distant ideas finally connect. Experiments have shown that the right temporal brain is active and bursts of high-frequency gamma waves appear before such a moment.
Maybe one day a few ideas sitting in your mental catalog of secrets will suddenly connect.
Interestingly, some of the most impactful discoveries in science occur when ideas from different disciplines collide, not when one field becomes too entrenched in its silos.
Several explanations have been given for this phenomenon: different fields frame problems differently and an innovative solution may be realized, or tools in one field may open up questions in another.
Something similar can happen in our minds.
When we resist the urge to dismiss what we don’t understand, we allow ideas to remain in conversation with each other. Over time, these unexpected connections can lead to insight.
Sometimes the most important ideas we are not yet ready to understand.
