I have been meditating more seriously the last week. I used to think that contemplation is far superior method and meditation is an inferior method. I know I have been a critic of meditation, but I can’t help but admit when I am wrong. I have to be true of my experience. I had an insight while meditating today that meditation is actually more connected to the first-order than contemplation. Meditation is observing consciousness itself whereas contemplation is conceptualization about consciousness. This is so obvious but was easily overlooked. Contemplation by nature is second-order because it requires thinking deeply about consciousness itself.  However, I still can apply the nuance that contemplation is still a good method for deriving insight. The second-order is connected to the first-order. There are some insights that contemplation will give me at the second-order that I may never get with meditation at the first-order. You can be amazing at meditation and not have the intelligence to know how to read a book or engage in critical thought, for example. Both methods are essential. I still can see the value of meditation while also seeing the biases against contemplation in Buddhism and other nondual schools of thought. Intelligence in the way that is commonly viewed is in the second-order. Just focusing on the first-order will not lead to the highest intelligence. But you will be deeply connected to Absolute Truth. Awakening doesn’t guarantee intelligence. Meditation doesn’t guarantee intelligence and complete understanding of reality. But meditation does connect you most directly to the present moment.  I’m still trying to process what this all means. Insights can be first order or second order. You can have a direct insight without words that cannot be explained and you can have a conceptual insight.
  What do you think? Edit: My biggest hang up is thinking that contemplation and meditation are two different things. In a way, they are. One uses the mind to discern truth and the other shuts off the mind to connect to truth. I find that my meditation practice incorporates both stillness and critical thought. I have a bias towards using my mind. But both compliment each other. How can you contemplate effectively if you aren’t connected to the now. Contemplation requires some level of meditativeness to exist. If I can’t focus, be present in the now, then contemplation cannot happen. Contemplation uses skills from meditation but meditation doesn’t necessarily use the skills from contemplation. That’s the main difference I have noticed.