In contemplation,

the “doors of perception” are opened [and] all life takes on a completely new meaning: the real sense of our own existence, which is normally veiled and distorted by the routine distractions of an alienated life, is now revealed in a central intuition. What was lost and dispersed in the relative meaningless and triviality of purposeless behavior (living like a machine, pushed around by the impulsions and suggestions from others) is brought together in fully integrated conscious significance. (158)

He who attempts to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening his own self-understanding, freedom, integrity and capacity to love will not have anything to give others. He will communicate to them nothing but the contagion of his own obsessions, his aggressiveness, his ego-centered ambitions, his delusions about ends and means, his doctrinaire prejudices and ideas. (160-161)