What is Ignorance?

[Sutra (#9)] [T 842.17.913b22; HPC 7.129a17]

What is ignorance? Good sons, all sentient beings fall into various inverted views without beginning. Just like a person who is disoriented and confuses the four directions, they mistakenly take the Four Elements as the attributes of their bodies and the conditioned shadows of the Six Objects as the attributes of their mind. It is just like when our eyes are diseased and we see flowers in the sky or a second moon. Good sons, the sky actually has no flowers--they are the false attachment of the diseased person. Because of this false attachment, not only are we confused about the self-nature of the sky; we are also mixed up about the place where real flowers come from. From this there is falsely existent transmigration through life and death. Therefore it is called "ignorance."

[Translator's note: The Four Elements that represent the range of sensory experience are Earth, Air, Fire and Water. In some schools of early Indian metaphysics, the elements were conceived as being inherently existent. In later Mahaayaana philosophy however, these four sensible tendencies that exist in the material world are not self-existent properties, but only appear in relation to other things.

The Six Objects are the objects of vision, hearing, taste, touch, smell and conceptualization. The relation of these factors to the construction of a false idea of self is discussed in detail in Chapter Three, and it is also a predominant theme of the SHM.]

[Kihwa] [HPC 7.129a23]

Awareness (Skt. vidyaa) has the meanings of "marvelous illumination" and "illumination of the correct." Ignorance (Skt. avidyaa) means "to turn away from illumination and face the darkness," or "lose the true and abandon oneself to error." Abandoning the true and falling into error is generally called "inversion." Since the types of error are not limited to one kind, the text says "various."

If the nature is originally clear and bright, how is it that there is ignorance? Beyond the clear and bright essence, delusion suddenly arises, and one loses the true brightness and correct wisdom, turns to darkness and falls into error. It is like a person who suddenly becomes confused, mistaking North for South and East for West. The marvelously bright true mind is still and luminous at the same time. Being luminous yet still, it is called the dharma body. Being still yet luminous, it is called true wisdom. True wisdom ends thought; the dharma-body lacks attributes. Yet even though the attributeless dharma-body is the true body, we take the material body as our own body; and while the thought-ending wisdom is the true mind, we take conditioned thought as our own mind. Since we take conditioned thought to be our mind, we confuse true wisdom. Since we take the material body to be our body, we confuse the dharma-body. Because of this, not only are we confused about the dharma-body and true wisdom, we also don't know that the material body and conditioned thought are both unreal. All of this is brought about by the most primary manifestation of non-enlightenment.

It is like looking into the sky with impaired vision and seeing flowers there; or pressing on the eyeball while looking at the moon and seeing a second moon at the edge of the moon. The "vast sky" refers to the dharma-body; the "sky-flowers" refer to the material body; the "real moon" refers to true wisdom; the "second moon" refers to conditioned thought. Even though the true body lacks attributes, we take the material body as [our own] body. Even though the true mind severs thought, we take conditioned thought to be [our own] mind. This is just like seeing flowers in the sky or a second moon at the edge of the moon. The material body has attributes, yet in the end they again scatter into extinction. The conditioned mind is false; it arises and ceases according to the environment. Because of our attachment to the body of arising and ceasing and taking it to be real, we falsely perceive transmigration through life and death. This is the error of non-enlightenment, which is exactly the characteristic of ignorance.

If we hold to the marvelously luminous essence and constantly awaken, and take the dharma-body as our body and take true wisdom as our mind, then, since the dharma-body and true wisdom originally lack the marks of arising and ceasing, we will definitely not perceive transmigration through life and death. The Tathaagata's originally-arisen practice of his causal stage, which is the complete illumination of the attributes of pure enlightenment, is none other than this.

[Translator's note: Ignorance is none other than the mistaken view regarding our own existence. Not only do we create an illusory person where there is none, but we also do not understand the way in which we truly exist, much less the nature of absolute reality. We have the habit of reifying concepts and attaching to them. Therefore, when we are told that the obstruction to enlightenment is our ignorance, and that ignorance is the basis for desire and suffering, "ignorance" immediately becomes an "it"--an objective "something," separate from our real consciousness.

Here the Buddha explains that ignorance is not "something," that "ignorance" is a term used to describe the mistaken perception of the mode of our being. Thus, if we can call ignorance anything, it is our continuing false perception of our own selves. This incorrect mental function results in: (1) the formulation of things that really do not exist at all (sky-flowers; a false self); (2) the misunderstanding of the correct way to perceive phenomenal existence (the place where a real flower has its being; the true way of existence) and (3) the misunderstanding of the nature of the real, or the absolute (the sky; `suunyataa). These three can be correlated with the "three natures" of the school of Consciousness-only: (1) "sky-flowers" represent the nature of (mistaken) discriminating conception (parikalpitah-svabhaava) (2) the true mode of the existence of flowers is the nature of dependent origination (paratantra-svabhaava) and (3) the quality of the sky is compared to the nature of perfectly accomplished reality (parinispanna-svabhaava).]

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