Since each person, as an individual, is the not-being of the other, it is never possible to eliminate non-understanding completely.
Interpretation
Understanding between individuals is inherently limited due to our individuality.
Friedrich Schleiermacher's quote emphasizes the idea that each person exists uniquely and independently, which creates a barrier to complete understanding between individuals. Since our perspectives and experiences are distinct, achieving total comprehension of another's thoughts and feelings is impossible; there will always be an element of non-understanding in human relationships.
In practice
During a workshop on interpersonal communication, I shared this quote to highlight the complexities of understanding in relationships.
The first, that their pretensions to this possession of an art properly so called in their art of speaking are entirely unfounded; and the second, that they are involved in a profound mistake in their confusion of the good with the pleasant.
Whenever I find a spark of that hidden fire that will sooner or later consume the old and create the new, I am drawn to it with love and hope, regarding it as a sign of my future home.
Either the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as is possible, and moves the reader towards him: or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards him.
The essence of the religious emotions consists in the feeling of an absolute dependence.
Now the relation which, in the sphere of nature, being and semblance or sensation bear to one another in this antithesis, is the same as that which in ethics exists between good and pleasure or feeling.
The essence of religion consists in the feeling of an absolute dependence.
Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.
The petty man is eager to make boasts, yet desires that others should believe in him. He enthusiastically engages in deception, yet wants others to have affection for him. He conducts himself like an animal, yet wants others to think well of him.
The villains are all parts of me. For years I've been wondering what it would be like if all those negative elements were forced onto the main character's side. I can understand a character with that kind of anger.
It is hard not to see into the future, faced with today's blind architecture - a thousand times more stupid and more revolting than that of other ages. How bored we shall be inside!
Lent is a good time for sacrificing. Let us deny ourselves something every day to help others.
The problem is one of opposition between subjective and objective points of view. There is a tendency to seek an objective account of everything before admitting its reality. But often what appears to a more subjective point of view cannot be accounted for in this way. So either the objective conception of the world is incomplete, or the subjective involves illusions that should be rejected.
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