...The art of meditation is a way of getting into touch with REALITY, 

and the reason for it is that most civilized people are out of touch with reality 

because they confuse the world as it is with the world as they think about it 

and talk about it and describe it... 

...For on the one hand there is the real world 

and on the other there is a whole system of symbols 

about that world which we have in our minds... 

...These are very very useful symbols, all civilization depends on them, 

but like all good things they have their disadvantages, 

and the principle disadvantage of symbols is that we confuse them with reality, 

just as we confuse money with actual wealth...

 - Alan Watts -