Boxes, boxes, boxes... and matrices.
Perhaps the core of what we "need" is to simply — as you suggest — recognize that there IS no box. WE made the box, and we ARE the box... if we choose to believe in boxes.
Personally, I am not good at "thinking outside the box" because I really don't know where the box IS, or even what a box is.
And whose box is it, anyway? Is my box the same as yours, or anyone else's?