Two Types of Ignorance

 Quote:

“Good son, just as the thought of a person who kills for greed is filled with the twelve causes and conditions, so is a bodhisattva’s thought of giving filled with the six perfections. This is the cause and condition for the adornments of virtuous merits and wisdom.” Sūtra on Upāsaka Precepts, Vol. 2

【善男子！如諸衆生貪心殺時，一念具足十二因緣；菩薩施時亦復如是, 一念具足如是六事; 是名功德智慧莊嚴。】《優婆塞戒經》卷2

 

Remarks:

Why is a single thought of killing filled with “the twelve causes and conditions”? We all know that ignorance is the fundamental cause of sentient beings’ transmigration in cyclic birth and death. Thus, the cause and condition of transmigration is ignorance. However, there are two types of ignorance: “beginningless ignorance” (S. avidyā; C. 無始無明) and “ignorance in a single thought” (S. moha; C. 一念無明).

 

Beginningless ignorance is not knowing the true reality correctly and, thus, not being able to realize it. It has existed since the beginningless eon; hence, the name “beginningless ignorance.” When people started their Buddhist cultivation in the beginningless eon, they could think only of how to be free from the transmigration of birth and death, which touches only on the aspect of “self-view” and “self-attachment” belonging to ignorance in a single thought. They never thought about the absolute origin (S. Koṭi, C. benji,本際) of cyclic birth and death, the absolute origin of remainderless nirvana, or the root of all dharma (all dharma realms). It is thus said that people have been endowed with ignorance of the true reality since the beginningless eon. Therefore, the direct cause of sentient beings’ transmigration in cyclic birth and death is not beginningless ignorance but ignorance in a single thought.

 

Beginningless ignorance will not impede Buddhists’ exit transmigration (like arhats, who can exit the delimited saṃsara in the three realms to enter remainderless nirvana even without penetrating beginningless ignorance). Still, it will impede practitioners’ realization of nirvana in Mahayana. In other words, beginningless ignorance will obstruct Mahayana bodhisattva practitioners’ attainment of the intrinsically pure nirvana (C. 本來自性清淨涅槃) and the unlocated nirvana (C. 無住處涅槃) of the Buddha Ground. 

 

Another type of ignorance is “ignorance in a single thought.” Why is it called such? There are two reasons. First, often out of the blue, there appears a single thought of self-attachment or attachment to self-belongings, or suddenly, the thought of not wanting to disappear enters one’s mind, and because of this, people with self-view refuse to take joy in nirvana. Second, a single thought is filled with the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination (a.k.a. the twelve causes and conditions). These constitute the dharma of transmigration because, due to transmigration and rebirth, by inquiring backward in each phase of the Link to old age and death, one eventually goes back (in reverse order) and finds ignorance.

 

For the aforementioned reasons, the Buddha taught the following in the sutra: “A bodhisattva’s thought of giving is filled with the six perfections. This is the cause and condition for the adornments of virtuous merits and wisdom.” Likewise, when we practice giving, our single thoughts will be filled with the six pāramitā. Thus, Mahayana Buddhist practitioners ought to know the fundamental difference between the two types of ignorance to correctly accumulate the necessary merits and wisdom, which will facilitate their cultivation toward the Path to Buddhahood.

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