understanding at the OED
DEFINITION
under{sm}standing, vbl. n.
1. a. (Without article.) Power or ability to understand; intellect, intelligence. Sometimes spec. = c.
USAGE:
c1340 HAMPOLE Pr. Consc. 605
Man when he is til worshepe broght Right understandyng has he noght.Richard Rolle of HampoleLIST OF WORKS
A devoute medytacyon (The remedy ayenst the troubles of temptacyons) a 1349 (W. de Worde 1508)
English prose treatises. Edited from Robert Thornton's MS. c 1340 (E.E.T.S. 1866)
The pricke of conscience (Stimulus conscientiæ); a Northumbrian poem c 1340 (Philol. Soc. 1863)FIND THISThe psalter; or psalms of David, and certain canticles, with a translation and exposition in English a 1340 (1884)
Richard Rolle of Hampole and his followers (Yorkshire writers) v.d. (Horstman 1895–96)
See also
Fire of Love HTML Translation from www.ccel.org
An understanding of the word understanding, for Thomas Lannon, in some instances, especially helpful in those times of devout research, (the place of the health cure) implies that a person
unstands. Or to literally, become unprostrate before that which is always more. Beyond the bodily lie, to unstand is to be priviledged to pure possibility but not to dwell in mere possibility. At this time, knowledge is gained when knowledge is not what is claimed. It is different then the active body, as the active body is the consciousness known.
It also not the unconscious mind. It is not self-denial as self-denial is the same thing as being aware. Unstanding is the time when one finds his or her duty to usefulness and enacts it in the form of goodness toward that eternal legacy of which one is always about, and only the infintessimal smallest harking.
Pricke of Conscience Window at All Saints, York