Avidyā

Avidyā (Sanskrit; Faded: avijjā; Tibetan: my rig Pa; Japanese: mumyō), means ignorance , or blindness . In the Buddhism, avidyā is the source of any suffering, Dukkha.

Moha (faded) is a synonym.

Introduction

  • Avidyā is, with the desire and hatred, one of the three “poisons”; however, it is at the origin of both others. Ignorance is thus a passion, but a done everything passion of illusions, and which causes all the desires;
  • Avidyā is the first link of the conditioned Coproduction, which describes the conditioning of all the phenomena. That does not make ignorance the cause of all the conditioned phenomena. Simply, according to the conditioned coproduction, ignorance conditions the volitional activities, Samskara;
  • Avidyā is the last of the Ten bonds, samyojana, which retain the “beings” captive of the rebirths in the Samsara. When the practice brings to even weaken to destroy these bonds, like the orgeuil, the ingorance is the last to be yielded, because it conditions all the others.

Avidyā according to Hinayâna

In Buddhism Hinayâna, whose only contemporary school is the Theravada, avidyā is ignorance:
  • Of the Four noble truths: avidyā is thus to be unaware of the suffering, like its origin, its suspension and its remedy;
  • Avidyā is to be unaware of not only the suffering implied by any conditioned phenomenon, but also the other characteristics which form, with the suffering, the Three characteristics, namely impermanency and the impersonnality;
  • Avidyā is to be unaware of the conditioned Coproduction;
  • Avidyā, finally, is the ignorance of the Karma which is associated with any intention.

Ignorance thus reveals the life like satisfactory, durable, and like property of individuals, where there are only miserable phenomena, transitory and without oneself.

Avidyā according to Mahâyâna

In the Buddhism mahâyâna, avidyā is ignorance of the Vacuité. The phenomena are empty; they can be included/understood like illusory, misleading, which corresponds to the first teaching of vacuity, in Buddhism Madhyamika; but the phenomena can also be included/understood like pure manifestation of the conscience, which corresponds to the teaching of vacuity in the Cittamatra.

In Atiyoga, or Dzogchen, the avidyā is specifically the not-recognition of its paramount nature, vidyā, or rig Pa in Tibetan.

References

  • See also the concept of wisdom: Prajna

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