Yes, C, indeed grasp means to comprehend, to understand. And if that was your intent when you noted that

“It seems unfortunate to have had an experience that you look back on after many years as a pinnacle event in your life when you almost had a grasp on something great and harmonious”

I won’t quibble. But please, endure my wish to convey another meaning, viz., to hold, to control. It was in this light, and with respect to the foregoing sentence that I took, or mistook your application of the word. It has been my custom to say ‘grasp of’ when meaning understanding; ‘grasp on’ when implying to hold in the sense of containing, restraining, or controlling. Meanings are easily mistaken.

C: You say that the experience you cited has significance in “its transformative action, nothing more." Yet, when you wrote about this on the other board you used phrases like:
"The most meaningful experience of my life occurred at the age of 25..."
"In those fleeting moments I lived and understood more than in the entirety of my life prior and since (I’m 47 years of age)."
"In the years since, it has become painfully clear..."
"We are wasting precious life."
"But this is mere knowledge, and knowing is not the same as understanding..."
Tell me again that there is no confusion, and that there in no fixation, as your words lead me to a different conclusion.

Then I shall try to explain. An event has significance – meaning, when it is one of action in the stream of life; when the sense of separation from that which we feel as being ‘out there’ ceases. The psychological sense of space, time, observer and observed is now meaningless. One has become the action, the action of life itself. This is the ground of transformation. It is with this in mind that I note that the experience of that 25 year-old was his most meaningful. Yet, I should note that there have been other ‘frolics’ in the stream, just none so profoundly affecting. But, it is essential that I relate that these moments of clarity do not, nor can they ever, arise from fixation, purpose, method, desire, obsession, concentration, purpose, or any other ‘vehicle’ directed toward that end. Truth is pathless.

“The description of your "experience" and the aftermath does not conform to your assertions.”

Please, C, explain how this is so and I shall try to clear up any misunderstanding.

“You also confuse feelings with knowledge.”

I’m not clear on this. Perhaps you are alluding to my statement that ends:

We are wasting precious life. But this is mere knowledge, and knowing is not the same as understanding...

What was meant by this is simply that the assertion was coming from the known, from memory, and not from engagement; that is, not from the profound and immediate sense of the crisis that it truly is.

“Your transitory feelings will betray you and leave you in despair without answers, whereas genuine knowledge will inform and equip you for decisions and action.”

C, I am not your enemy, nor am I an adversary of truth. I sense that some of our differences arise from differing perspectives on the meanings of the words being used. But, if you feel that it runs much more deeply, and you think it worthwhile, then let us confront it head on. If you are right and I am lost in confusion, then your counsel will not have been for naught.

Thank you,

Joe