What is, is, what ain't, ain't.
Each society creates its own buffers... and each person also. It is needed in a way, because otherwise the unawakened man will not be able to live at all. If you suddenly become aware of what is happening all around -- of all the wars going on, the violence, the murders, the suicides, the neurosis, the psychosis, the madness -- you, you will not be able to even breathe. You will die immediately, instantly. Your imagination creates a screen, it does not allow it to enter your being.
Now scientists say that only two percent of information goes in -- ninety-eight percent is debarred. Only two percent of reality enters in you -- ninety-eight is debarred. Imagination is needed in the unawakened state of the mind.
It is a friend in a way, but the friend becomes the enemy if you start growing. Then the very buffer becomes the barrier. For a man who wants to grow spiritually, for a man who wants to know what truth is, imagination is the only barrier. He has to break that barrier by and by, slowly, slowly. So a moment comes where you don't have any hope, you don't desire, you don't have any dream to project... you simply see whatsoever is the case.
To become capable of that, to see reality as it is, without dodging in any way, to encounter it as it is....
And once you have come to see that which is, without any imagination interfering in it, then there are two possibilities. If it happens accidentally you will go mad; if it happens through a certain growth method you will become enlightened, awakened. That's why Nietzsche goes mad, Buddha becomes awakened.
If all alone you drop imagination, there is more possibility that you will go mad -- it will be too much.
It should never be dropped more than you can bear. It should be dropped very slowly, gradually, inch by inch. If it is suddenly dropped you will lose all control -- you will not know who you are and where you are and what is happening. So a person working on his own is in a very dangerous state.
Start dropping your imagination. What is, is, what ain't, ain't. Let that be your mantra.