84 Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path
A common prejudice that is hard to overcome stands
opposed to this thought. This prejudice cannot rise to the
insight that the concept of the triangle grasped by me is
the same as that grasped by my neighbor. Naive human
beings consider themselves the builders of their concepts.
Therefore they believe that every person has individual
concepts. It is a fundamental requirement of philosophi-
cal thinking to overcome this prejudice. The single, uni-
tary concept of the triangle does not become many by
being thought by many thinkers. For the thinking of many
thinkers is itself a unity.
In thinking, we are given the element that unites our
particular individuality with the whole of the cosmos.
When we sense, feel (and also perceive) we are separate;
when we think, we are the all-one being that penetrates
all. This is the deeper basis of our dual nature. Within us,
we see an absolute force come into existence, a force that
is universal. Yet we do not come to know it as it streams
forth from the center of the world, but only at a point on
the periphery. If we came to know it as it streamed forth
from the center of the world, then we would know the
whole riddle of the world at the instant we came to con-
sciousness. Since we stand at a point on the periphery,
however, and find our own existence enclosed within cer-
tain limits, we must find out about the realm situated out-
side our own being with the help of thinking that extends
into us from universal world existence.
The urge for knowledge arises in us because thinking in
us reaches out beyond our separateness and relates itself
to universal world existence. Beings without thinking do
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