“You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you’re finished, you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird… So let’s look at the bird and see what it’s doing — that’s what counts.” ― Richard P. Feynman
Religion and philosophy run particular dangers of bewitching us. The universe does not divide neatly into nouns and verbs and so we always feel an ambiguity when we actually experience the world as opposed to just thinking or holding beliefs about it. Creeds and philosophies, however rational, cannot capture the world of experience. They give us a flattened simplified symbol to help us find our way much like a map. Clutching to a creed in order to feel certain is like covering our face with a map so we do not see the chaos before us. If the map ever replaces the territory in our minds, we are lost by definition.