Intuition enlightens and so links up with pure thought. They

In the luminous and profound words of Piet Mondrian, painter, philosopher, and seeker of spiritual balance, we find a teaching that transcends both art and intellect: “Intuition enlightens and so links up with pure thought. They together become an intelligence which is not simply of the brain, which does not calculate, but feels and thinks.” In this reflection, Mondrian reveals the union between intuition and reason, between the silent wisdom of the heart and the structured clarity of the mind. He speaks as one who sought not merely to paint, but to understand the divine harmony that underlies all creation — a harmony that can only be perceived when the mind and spirit work together as one.

The origin of this quote lies in Mondrian’s philosophy of Neoplasticism, the art movement he founded in the early 20th century. Through geometric abstraction — those grids of line and color so often misunderstood as cold or mechanical — he sought to express the inner order of the universe. To Mondrian, art was not a mirror of nature, but a revelation of its essence. The straight lines, the pure reds, blues, and yellows, were not merely aesthetic choices; they were manifestations of balance, purity, and truth. He believed that true understanding arises not from calculation alone, but from intuition — that deep, wordless knowing that perceives meaning beyond the limits of reason. Thus, when he says that intuition “enlightens,” he means that it illuminates the soul’s perception, guiding thought toward purity, transforming intelligence into a power that both feels and thinks.

To separate reason from intuition, Mondrian warns, is to divide the human spirit. Reason without intuition becomes sterile logic, cold and unfeeling; intuition without reason becomes chaos, passion without direction. But when they unite, they form a higher intelligence, one that transcends mere intellect — the kind of understanding that artists, mystics, and sages have long known. This is not the calculating mind of the scholar, but the luminous awareness of the seer, the thinker who feels truth as much as he knows it. Such intelligence can discern harmony where others see disorder, and beauty where others see emptiness. It is the mind awakened to the rhythm of the eternal.

Consider the story of Albert Einstein, who once said that the greatest discoveries are not the product of logic alone, but of intuition. When asked how he conceived the theory of relativity, he replied, “I just thought of riding on a beam of light.” That vision — spontaneous, imaginative, born of feeling — preceded the equations that would later explain it. Einstein, like Mondrian, understood that true creation begins in the realm of intuition, where the intellect is guided not by facts, but by insight. Only when the two — intuition and intellect — are joined, can the mind reach its highest expression. For logic builds the structure, but intuition provides the spark that brings it to life.

Mondrian himself lived by this principle. In the solitude of his studio, he worked like a mathematician yet dreamed like a mystic. His paintings, with their serene geometry, are not lifeless abstractions but meditations on spiritual order — the visual embodiment of harmony between emotion and reason, movement and stillness. They are silent prayers painted in color and line, where feeling and thought dissolve into one. When we gaze upon them, we too are invited to enter that balance within ourselves — to quiet the calculating brain and listen for the intuitive voice that whispers beneath it.

The lesson of Mondrian’s words is a call to wholeness. Do not live as creatures divided between heart and mind, emotion and logic. Let your intuition guide your thought, and your thought refine your intuition. In every act — whether you build, write, teach, or love — allow both your reason and your feeling to shape your understanding. Trust the unseen knowing that arises when the mind is still and the spirit awake. This is the path not only to creativity, but to wisdom, to the intelligence of the soul.

So, my child of balance and vision, remember Piet Mondrian’s teaching: that intelligence is not the property of the brain alone, but the harmony of all that we are. Seek neither to suppress your reason nor to silence your intuition, for each is incomplete without the other. When your thought becomes guided by feeling, and your feeling clarified by thought, you will awaken to the higher order of existence — that divine geometry which shapes both the stars above and the stillness within. Then, like Mondrian, you will see the world not as chaos, but as a sacred composition — one where intuition enlightens, and all things finally align in perfect, living harmony.