When a baker makes bread, he has to know the proper amount of yeast and water to use, as well as the right amount of flour.  The best baker should also know how the wheat has been cultivated and manured.  In a similar way, you have to know your mind:  the neuroses, the positive possibilities, the obstacles, and the vicissitudes.  You have to know reality as well as fantasies, hopes and ideas.  The teachings of Buddha are quite realistic and pragmatic.

Knowing our minds as a baker knows his recipe can help know what is real and what is an illusion.