Patanjali's yoga sutras

शब्दार्थप्रत्ययामामितरेतराध्यासात्संकरः तत्प्रविभागसंयमात् सर्वभूतरुतज्ञानम् ॥१७॥

3.17 śabdārthapratyayānāmitaretarādhyāsātsankarastatpravibhāgasamyamātsarvabh ūtarutajñānam

shabda = words

artha = things

pratyaya = ideas

itaretara = one another

adhyasat = false attribution

samkara = confusing  tat = that

pravibhaga = distinctions; parts; classifications

samyama = the practice of dharana, dhyana, and samadhi

sarvabhūtaruta = the cries of all creatures

jnana = insight

The paradox of “understanding” is that we confuse words and ideas with reality. By meditating on the distinctions between language, symbols and meaning, you will gain insight into the cries of all being.

A great example of a mediation on the distinction between language, symbols, and meaning, is Alan Watts talk, The Veil of Thoughts, about the confusion of ideas with reality (money with wealth, flag with country) and the false distinction between the physical and the spiritual.

We are thinking about vast abstractions, ideologies called communism, capitalism—all these systems—and paying less and (Text sourced from https://www.organism.earth/library/document/veil-of-thoughts) less attention to the world of physical reality, to the world of earth, and trees, and waters, people, and so are in the name of all sorts of abstractions busy destroying our natural environment.