This is simply a way of saying that an organism constitutes a system of meanings within and for itself. It is an intentional system as well as a causal system. It is both subject and object. If a beetle, upon being prodded from behind, opens its wings and takes to the air, there is an intention and a logic in its behavior. Being bumped means to it a dangerous contact.
Flight means possible escape.
Seeing it through our human representation of its situation, we are tempted to think that the beetle must similarly represent its situation to itself in some form of consciousness which we can only imagine like our own. This dilemma can be avoided by refraining from the temptation to project our own experience, or by reminding ourselves it is only a way of speaking. It is connectivity which is primary. Representation is an elaborate form of connectivity, and awareness is an even more conditional form of representation. Just as the notion of causal connection depends on the existence of discrete objects, the notion of intentional connection depends on the existence of self-contained agents.