The Aftereffects of Understanding

Intellectual understanding knows that something is so but does not know why it is so; realization through practice knows both that it is so and why it is so.

The trouble with intellectual understanding is that once one knows that something is so, one believes one has arrived at the destination, and it becomes very difficult to want to know why it is so. Even if one does want to know why, due to insufficient meditative concentration (samādhi) together with an arrogant mind, one becomes unable to know why it is so, and it is very difficult to transform intellectual understanding into realization through practice. Moreover, what ordinary people call intellectual understanding merely refers to having understood some Buddhist doctrines; it does not even amount to knowing that something is so, for they do not know what the ultimate aim of the Buddha's teachings is—they are still far from genuine intellectual understanding.