1929年比利時畫家 René Magritte 有一幅油畫名為《La Trahison des images》(The Treachery of Images), 一個菸斗下書「Ceci nest pas une pipe」 (This is not a pipe).

因為太多人不懂他的意思, 他解說「could you stuff my pipe? No, its just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe", I’d have been lying!」沒有史料可連結 Magritte 和禪學, 不過這幅畫點出禪宗的精髓: 象徵 (語言, 形象 ...) 不等於實相.