https://www.etymonline.com/word/understand

Extract

Old English understandan “comprehend, grasp the idea of,” probably literally “stand in the midst of,” from under + standan “to stand” (see stytand (v.)). If this is the meaning, the under is not the usual word meaning “beneath,” but from Old English under, from PIE *nter- “between, among” (source also of Sanskrit antar “among, between,” Latin inter “between, among,” Greek entera “intestines;” see inter-). Related: Understood; understanding.

That is the suggestion in Barnhart, but other sources regard the “among, between, before, in the presence of” sense of Old English prefix and preposition under as other meanings of the same word. “Among” seems to be the sense in many Old English compounds that resemble understand, such as underniman“to receive,” undersecan “examine, investigate, scrutinize” (literally “underseek”), underðencan“consider, change one’s mind,” underginnan “to begin.” It also seems to be the sense still in expressions such as under such circumstances.

A stranger, meeting us, who shares a glance
A moment almost gone before it’s here,
Trusts the understanding ,trusts balance

A separation crossed by happy chance
Indicating how we  may now  bear
A stranger meeting, one who shares a glance

Strangers in a sense, but now we dance
The pattern is  alive whoever’s where
Trusts the standing,moving keeps  balance

Is this prearranged or is it chance?
All that’s human lives in how we care
For strangers meeting us  and how we glance

Shall our human dignity advance?
Shall we look with kindness, shall we stare?
Trust the changing  mood, the deep  balance

Shall we  look again, how  do we dare
To see the stranger who is standing there?
A stranger meeting us who shares a glance
Trusts the understanding , trusts the stance

,” Prayer,Auden wrote, “is to pay attention or, shall we say, to ‘listen’ to someone or something other than oneself. Whenever a human so concentrates his/her attention—be it on a landscape, or a poem or a geometrical problem or an idol or the True God—that s/he completely forgets his/her own ego and desires in listening to what the other has to say to him, she/he is praying.” This may seem a denatured idea of prayer, but Auden took it seriously, and seems to have prayed in exactly this sense”

I sent this article to a few friends.One sent  back an elegant and beautiful  description of his view of the world and what it has within it though  being an atheist he may not pray in the [old fashioned] Christian sense.He may pray in the above sense but to him  it’s not prayer it is being alive and experiencing that

Another lapsed Catholic sent a short note saying  she wasn’t interested in God
She didn’t ask me what it meant to me or why it had seemed interesting enough to send to her.She may like me have suffered the utter boredom of a convent school

Are some of us living in a complete and enclosed world so we don’t care what interests  others? And we feel safe.After all, the boredom of the Rosary nearly drove some of us insane.That was no prayer that was rubbish to me.Yet some people have found it a help in times of trouble/Maybe just feeling the beads is nice?

I suppose in Auden’s piece he wants to be involved in humankind and the world of nature, the Universe of some aspect of that.And he also liked the invocation of the  spiritual by means of rites and rituals which has been part of our history from the start……

A bit like music or an art show….?

I have to say, you would never know the NHS was struggling if you visited the gynacology department or indeed other ones  in our rebuilt hospital.
To be with such helpful people is a true balm in these days when the world is  so troubled and politicians don’t seem very wise or  determined to help  the poor. the struggling or the sick nor  try bring a better world  for our children and those around the world.
We are very fortunate, we don’t alwaysys realise that