When the rational mind roams through the worlds of knowledge, rummages through the library or searches for the causal laws of the universe, this is meticulous work building systems of knowledge. At first these systems have little in common with the world of experience, let alone the inner world. Only through contemplation does the mind pause and behold the systematized, abstract representation as an image of the world, as a worldview. It is intuition that anchors this image in a deeper reality. When can we say that we really understand something, beyond the rational? When is the point reached at which something makes sense?
Meaning is created through contemplation and through intuition anchoring knowledge in the deep reality of our consciousness. The butterfly whose flight paths we can describe and which we can assign to a genus, whose habitat we study, its mating behavior and its search for food—all this we can investigate through rational knowledge. Yet the contemplation of beauty, the elegance of its dreamy flight, the gentle landing on a blossom—all this offers itself to contemplative beholding. And when we then ask about the deeper meaning of this reality, about the meaning of life itself, it is intuition that helps us build this bridge.
Intuition, which Henri Bergson brought back to the center of philosophy, is at the same time a key to meditation. The vision of intuition, which does not follow the strict rules of science and enters the core of our being with ease, is what first allows a worldview to become meaningful.
The beautiful thing about intuition is that, in relation to the outer world, it is quite unbound. It is free and not shy about engaging with thoughts that are not rational. This is why it is condemned by the advocates of Enlightenment, who misunderstand it and fear that it leads to wild speculation. When driven by fanaticism, it becomes destructive and allows itself to be blinded by power.