Cognition, Insight, Understanding

Cognition:

This is the ability to recognize impressions and relates, in my mind, to the air element.  For me, it refers to the length and sensitivity of the aura and its responsiveness to impression.  Whether or not something that is recognized is integrated depends on the strength of the aura, its connection to the inner being, and the way the other elements function.  "I know" may be simply an acknowledgment of noticing something but not necessarily indication that the individual has worked with the knowledge.  Depending on the organization of the auric field and its capacity to transmit energy, the ability to respond to stimulation may be more or less accurate, meaningful, and enduring.  This differentiates very short-term experience from long-term experience.

Insight:

This refers to the ability to interpret responses to stimuli in a meaningful way.  It goes beyond recognition to a deeper level in which meaning (and therefore also perhaps judgment) is developed.  This also refers to the ability to integrate impressions into a frame of reference so it requires somewhat more flexing of intellectual faculties and better ability to move information from the outside to the inside.  In a sense, it is to impression what digestion is to food — and it is hence a predominantly fiery function.  Insight can be swift if all the connecting lines are there.  It is also a function of light and is very yang.

Understanding:

Understanding is more subtle than insight because it combines cognition and insight in a way that has feeling.  It is possible to be insightful without being particularly caring.  Understanding involves accessing the experiential domain and is more reflective than cognitive, but there has to be a spark to ignite the understanding and this involves yang movement into yin.  Understanding can, of course, be a close cousin to wisdom or narrow and confined to one's own highly limited repertoire of experience.  So, using this word may imply great nuance or simple recognition, often accompanied by judgment rather than compassion.  In any event, it has a deeper quality and requires water because it has to access reservoirs of experience that have a personal and also sometimes sticky quality.

Hope this helps!