The Exponential Nature of Understanding
In a 2011 conference talk, Elder David A. Bednar compared the spirit of revelation to a sunrise. The light of morning begins as a faint glow at the horizon. This glow does not illuminate our surroundings, and we remain in darkness for a time, but we know that light will come.
Unlike the light of the sunrise, which comes to us even if we stay in the same place, revelation requires us to seek it out and move toward the light. Even when we want everything to be revealed simultaneously, only bits and pieces come a little at a time.
When Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, God placed an Angel with a flaming sword to keep them from partaking of the fruit of the tree of life. The reason was that the fruit of the tree would give them specific knowledge that would make them immortal in a state of unpreparedness and sin.
Because we are in a state of unpreparedness, we cannot bear all things now. However, as our understanding grows, we change and repent. Repentance quickens the pace of revelation, and what was once a faint glow on the horizon begins illuminating things around us. As we become more familiar with our surroundings, we begin to build a foundation upon which we can raise a structure of knowledge and understanding.
We exist in a world of cycles. Time is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, and so on. An analog clock face is round, and the hands rotate to give a sense of where we are in a day, but this sense of time is superseded by the physical rotation of the earth that literally changes almost everything around us; light and darkness, temperature, triggers physiological rhythms in our bodies and requires us to conform to the day’s requirements.
The process of gaining understanding is also cyclical in the sense that it comes in repeating patterns of thought and action. Unlike time, which is linear, learning can be likened to an expanding spiral. Each time we traverse the elements or phases on the expanding circle, we pass repeating stages in the learning process. Similar to the pattern of a rotation of the earth that gives us sunrises, brilliant sunlight, sunsets, then darkness, understanding comes from the phases of desire, faith, study, and action, which leads to knowledge. As we accumulate knowledge, we can begin to understand spiritual reality, similar to the sunrise illuminating our physical surroundings. This pattern repeatedly repeats until we gain a perfect understanding of ourselves, God, and the universe.
In Matthew 13, the Savior explained that he taught in parables so that those who understood would be given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. It is described in verse 12, which says, “For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” At first glance, you could think that it is unfair for those who have an abundance of understanding to get more, while those who don’t understand have the little they possess taken away. But the reason and antidote for the problem of not understanding are explained this way, “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”
An economic principle called Pareto distribution or the 80/20 rule explains that 80 percent of the world’s wealth is held by 20 percent of the population. We have all heard the idiom; the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. This is also true in the case of spiritual wealth. This, however, does not mean that a poor person can’t get rich or that a spiritually bereft individual cannot become a member of the godly aristocracy. In the case of eternal understanding, even brief encounters with pure revelation can unlock a vast amount of spiritual knowledge, which can then be acted upon to obtain understanding.
If we seem to be cut off from spiritual understanding, the problem lies with us. The parables, teachings, practices, and ways to act are available to each of us, and it is up to us to hear, see, and do them. We cannot always expect to use traditional methods of secular learning to obtain spiritual understanding. Generally, worldly knowledge is acquired using objects and evidence, while spiritual understanding is gained through feelings and what I can only describe as bursts of eternal realities becoming clearly discernible. For me, logic serves to confirm rather than lead to spiritual knowledge. In other words, spiritual things make logical sense after I come to understand or practice them.
Using the sunrise analogy, we can visualize the concept of exponential understanding. Once the sun peeks over the horizon, everything around us becomes discernible. We see things as they are, and there is no more ambiguity or doubt. But after we see our true surroundings, it is what we do about it that matters.
Using scriptural metaphors, we must put our new-found spiritual mustard seeds in good soil and nurture them so that they become a tree that is large enough to be helpful to others. We must use the spirit as leaven for our lives so that all we do becomes blessed and holy. Each of us has tares among our wheat, good and bad habits, and behaviors that must be carefully separated and either burned or harvested. Once we find our pearl of great price, we must sell out to obtain it; we give up what is good for what is better and better for what is best.
I hope we can all see with our eyes and hear with our ears and, one day, understand all of the mysteries concerning ourselves, God, and the atonement of Christ.