Incommunicable Knowledge and the Act of Communicating Anyway

Do you think it is possible to convey what you truly feel to others through words?

You cannot understand just by being told

I continue to write on my note and blog about how to affirm a difficult life. I hope as many people as possible read it and find it useful, but I feel that the number of people for whom this actually reaches their heart is quite limited.

This is partly due to my own limitations in writing ability and a lack of reach on the internet, but there is a more fundamental reason. It is the fact that "knowledge not rooted in experience is of little use to the person."

Humans do not understand anything until it sinks into their gut. Everyone knows and can say that you can never truly understand another person's heart, or that it is important to keep trying even if you fail or don't see immediate results. Most of the things that are truly important to humans are not particularly special when put into words. However, understanding them in the true sense is very difficult, and those who actually understand and are convinced of these things based on real experience are always in the minority. People can use words to write or speak about things, but this experience and understanding cannot be communicated in any way.

There is a strong desire to truly understand someone's heart, and there are moments when, after making such an effort, you feel you have understood each other from the bottom of your heart for just an instant. Conversely, as is common in romantic relationships, there are times when you realize at the end that despite spending years of intimate time together, you didn't actually understand each other at all. In reality, we really don't understand others at all. Even so, can we keep from giving up on the idea of understanding others?

To repeat, this is an extremely difficult process, and almost no one can see it through to the end. There is no one to encourage you to work hard at it. This is your own task, and there is no one else who can do it for you.

On the meaning of worrying itself

There is a saying that if you could just stop worrying because someone told you "there's no point in worrying," you wouldn't have any trouble at all.

When thinking about worrying, there are several points to keep in mind. First is the difference between "worrying" and "thinking." Thinking means understanding a problem well and creating concrete ways to deal with it, whereas worrying refers to a state of psychological and emotional confusion where the same words are just spinning around in your head. Also, since it is theoretically impossible for a new answer to emerge just by continuing to think about the same thing without gaining any new information, there is also the approach of changing your mindset, stopping the worry, and taking action.

These points are practical techniques for dealing with worry, but I have recently felt that the act of worrying might have a meaning separate from reaching a conclusion. Worrying is a process of digesting something within yourself. It is also a process of taking in something new from the outside and changing the structure of your own heart. It is not just the answer you reach as a result of worrying that is important; the act of worrying itself is a process that unfolds within you, and doing so is something that is truly necessary for you.

Wanting to avoid worrying in life is like wanting to live by eating only jelly that can be digested without chewing. That would completely lose the richness of a human-like diet. If you never worry, you can never change in any true sense.

This is not the kind of mental argument that says people should suffer to grow. I think it is a story about how the world works, more realistic, like how you cannot ride a vehicle you haven't learned to drive, or how you cannot buy a product without paying money.

Do not avoid worrying. Do not accept the words of others too easily. The reason I try to talk about things that cannot be communicated is because I want you to think about them yourself.

Related Articles

From the "Living Better" articles

• I want to properly affirm the world, not just with fluffy messages (2023.12.2)

• The theory that extreme arguments are always wrong (2024.2.2)

• It's okay to be bad at it, just do something. Do you intend to go to the grave having accomplished nothing? (2024.2.3)

From the "Short Essays" articles

• So what if "there are people suffering more than you"? (2024.7.17)

• On the sensation of change and expansion (2024.8.8)

From the blog

• What does it mean to believe in yourself? (2023.11.3)

• If you want to be completely stable, you have to die (2023.11.4)

• I don't want to be told "you don't have to try so hard" or "it's okay to just be yourself" (2023.12.23)