Concepts
In the process of conceptualizing and naming the world, we forget
that these elements didn’t exist for us until we differentiated
from them, separated them, isolated them, and named them. We don’t
remember what happened before that, because there wasn’t
enough conceptual capacity to remember things before that. What
we remember is the notions we have developed. We cannot remember
things that had no concepts associated with them. (Diamond Heart
Book 4, pg 232)

Concepts, insight and transformation
No matter how much psychological insight we have, how many inner
spiritual experiences we have, how many times we see angels or
talk with God, if our experience occurs still within the old concepts,
no actual transformation of ourselves and our world will happen.
(Diamond Heart Book 4, pg 239)

Concepts and perception
Our experience of what is happening is not of what is actually
happening. Actually when you perceive, the impressions, sounds,
sights, or sensations are new – they’re one hundred
percent new as they happen. But we don’t see them in their
newness, we see them through our concepts about the various kinds
of impressions. Not only do we see them through those concepts,
those concepts automatically evoke emotional associations and
feeling tones. So our experience is not a pure perception, but
the thoughts, feelings, and memories that our concepts bring in.
We have an experience only in the present moment, but that experience
is not really an experience of the moment. Your experience is
already your own interpretation of the moment. This happens every
second. We never, or rarely, allow ourselves simply to perceive.
(Diamond Heart Book 4, pg 281)

At the moment of perception our minds grasp and interpret sensory
information, and supply us with prepackaged concepts that have
specific associations and emotional tones based on past experience.
(Diamond Heart Book 4, pg 281)

Concepts, words, and mystery
We need to see that fact in a very deep and fundamental way.
You need to see that when you look at the table you do not know
what you are looking at. What you know is a word, the concept
of the table. You do not know what you are looking at. And the
moment you really see through the word, you see that the reality
that you are seeing around you is a mystery; that we live in complete,
pure mystery; that the world around us that is old, drab, and
normal is actually a wonder, a mystery. It is a mystery that defies
our minds that defies our best efforts. (Diamond Heart Book 4,
262)