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'One must forget many cliches in order to behold a single image. Insight is the beginning of perceptions to come rather than the extension of perceptions gone by. Conventional seeing, operating as it does with patterns and coherences, is a way of seeing the present in the past tense. Insight is an attempt to think in the present. ... insight is knowledge at first sight.' - The Prophets, Introduction

Abraham Joshua Heschel#1

AwarenessKnowledgePerceptionTruthWisdom

About this quote

What does it mean?
True insight breaks old patterns to see the present clearly.
In plain terms
Insight means seeing now, not just recalling the past.
What can you take from it?
Stay open to seeing things freshly.

Where it applies

  • problem solving
  • learning
  • conflict resolution

Putting it to work

  • questioning assumptions
  • meditation
  • open inquiry

Questions to consider

  • When did you see something old in a new way?
  • What assumptions do you hold?

Another view

Past patterns sometimes help navigate new situations safely.

More from Abraham Joshua Heschel

  1. 'Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something suprem…

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  2. 'God is not a hypothesis derived from logical assumptions, but an immediate insight, self-evident as light. He is not something to be sought in the darkness wi…

    Permalink to quote #3
  3. 'He who is satisfied has never truly craved, and he who craves for the light of God neglects his ease for ardor.'

    Permalink to quote #4

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