For some background on the Indian mystic Sri Ramakrishna, see this post.

The world is water and the mind, milk. If you pour milk into water, they become one, you cannot find the pure milk anymore. But turn the milk into curd and churn it into butter. Then, when that butter is placed in water, it will float. So, practice spiritual discipline in solitude and obtain the butter of knowledge and love. Even if you keep the butter in the water of the world, the two will not mix. The butter will float.