James Hillman remarks in one of his books how there are three kinds of knowledge: scientific knowledge where facts are weighed in the balance; philosophic knowledge where one evaluates the pros and cons; and, finally, contemplative knowledge, which is sometimes called intuition, or gnosis, knowledge of spiritual things.
It is this latter that the practice of meditation can lead one to access. And of late it has led me to reflect on the friends who have crossed my path, many of whom have been signposts pointing me in the direction I should go. I think also of those major loves which have profoundly changed me both in the past and now in this present moment. My meeting with such individuals appears more and more to me not as accidental but pre-planned, that X and I were meant to meet and come into a relationship.
In many of our emotional or sexual encounters we are like passing ships, but there are those few relationships which become a long voyage of discovery. And so one asks: where does this attraction between two people come from? Is there a destiny at work here? Who can tell why some find the perfect partner and others don’t? How do we manage to be in the same place at the same time. And if we had missed the moment would we have remained strangers?
Increasingly, at an intuitive level, I have come to sense that we all live several lives, and that certain relationships of love or deep friendship, have been meant from many lives ago.
As much as I agree with you, James, about intuition, I wonder if that is the same thing that we often refer to as the voice within. My real question is, how do we account for that inner voice for some people which prompts many acts of violence. We are all aware of murderers to say that they were acting on a message from God. Perhaps we can dismiss this by saying they have simply misunderstood that inner voice.