Truth has two meanings: there is truth as knowledge of reality, and truth as reality itself.
- Nikolai Berdyaev
I think this punchy line from Berdyaev's The Beginning and End may provide a concise distinction between secondary-level thinking and primary thinking.
Truth as knowledge of reality - knowledge formed from everything representational and language-based: art, images, news, media, print, our own language-based thoughts etc., which all coalesce to form a "knowledge of reality".
Truth as reality itself - divine thinking; a creative act; direct knowledge of reality that does not (and cannot) use or rely upon anything representational.