We continually use the samsaric mind to understand the Buddha's teaching without knowing it. But the Buddha's teaching is foremost about getting rid of the samsaric mind so that we might be able to get a small glimpse of the true Mind which is outside the realm of samsara. On this matter the Perfect Awakening Sutra says:
"Using the samsaric mind, you produce samsaric views. Consequently, you will never be able to enter the Tathagata's ocean of perfect bliss."
Indeed, how is it possible that by using the samsaric mind, which is habitually bound to discursive thinking, one might attain Bodhicitta? It is impossible. But then do we know what discursive thinking is which prevents us from apperceiving even a trace of the enlightened Mind (bodhicitta)? If not, how can we enter into non-discursive meditation (dhyana) in which discursiveness has to be put aside?
By and large, discursive thinking, which is the main engine of the samsaric mind, is thinking that deals with our temporal body, its mental states, and the outside world of multiplicity. More precisely, discursive thinking is entirely conceptually oriented existing, as it were, like a fish in a linguistic ocean. By comparison, non-discursive thinking or jñâna, to use a simile, is more like a turtle who can live in the linguistic ocean but can also leave it and live on the Isle of Jewels (nirvana) which is above this ocean.
What discursive thinking really does is establish a fictional world—one in particular of our own making which takes us far afield from the content of the Buddha's awakening which transcends the samsaric mind.
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