But if conceptual knowledge is fallible, what other instrument should we use to grasp reality? According to Buddhism, we only reach reality through direct experience. Study and speculation are based on concepts. In conceptualizing we cut reality into small pieces that seem to be independent of one another. This manner of conceiving things is called imaginative and discriminative knowledge (vikalpa) according to the Vijnanavadin school of Buddhism. The faculty that directly experiences reality without passing through concepts is called non-discriminative and non-imaginative wisdom (nirvikalpajnana). This wisdom is the fruit of meditation. It is a direct and perfect knowledge of reality, a form of understanding in which one does not distinguish between subject and object. It cannot be conceived by the intellect nor expressed by language.
---Thich Nhat Hanh---
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