Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (125)

What Is Ignorance and Delusion

What is ignorance and delusion (moha)? Not understanding is called ignorance and delusion. Ignorance and delusion is also called avidyā (beginningless ignorance), and avidyā is also called not understanding—not understanding the origins and workings of all dharmas, not understanding the true nature of all dharmas, not understanding what the five aggregates (pañcaskandha) are and their essence, not understanding the eighteen realms (dhātu) and their essence, not understanding how to realize the selflessness of the five aggregates in the Small Vehicle, not understanding the twelve links of dependent origination (dvādaśāṅga-pratītyasamutpāda) taught to śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, not understanding the tathāgatagarbha dharma of the Great Vehicle, not understanding how to attain enlightenment, not understanding how to know the seed-qualities of the tathāgatagarbha, not understanding how to cultivate oneself so as to broadly benefit sentient beings, and not understanding how to cultivate the path to buddhahood—being ignorant of all these dharmas is avidyā, and belongs to ignorance and delusion. This includes not understanding avidyā and delusion themselves, which is likewise ignorance and delusion.

The ignorance stored within the tathāgatagarbha of sentient beings is immeasurable and boundless. When all of this ignorance is completely eradicated, one becomes a Buddha. Ignorance is divided into three kinds. The first is fundamental ignorance (āvaraṇa of a single thought): craving for the threefold world and attachment to the body of the five aggregates; when this is fully eliminated, one attains the fourth fruit of arhatship and enters nirvāṇa without remainder. The second is beginningless ignorance (avidyā): from beginningless kalpas, sentient beings have not known that there exists a true mind, the tathāgatagarbha, which can give rise to the bodies of the five aggregates life after life and to the dharmas of the threefold world, and which is the truly unborn and unceasing self of sentient beings. The third is dust-like ignorance (rañjanīya-avidyā), which may also be subsumed under beginningless ignorance; it means that on the path to buddhahood, the principles one does not understand are as numerous as dust and sand, and all must be eliminated before attaining buddhahood. It is also called the afflictions of cultivation; when a bit of this affliction is eliminated, ignorance is reduced a little, and one draws a little closer to buddhahood.