Friends:
What are the Causes of Ignorance?
First:
Ignorance is
not seeing and
not knowing
the
4 Noble Truths fully!
The near and
proximate cause is:
Ignorance comes into being caused by the
5 mental hindrances!
That is right here and now:
Ignorance grows up caused by desire and lust...
Ignorance arises caused by aversion and ill-will...
Ignorance emerges caused by lethargy and laziness...
Ignorance appears caused by restlessness and regret...
Ignorance comes into being caused by doubt and uncertainty...
All these 5 factors will obscure, obstruct and distort the 4 truths!
The remote and subtle cause is fermentation ~ assuming and supposing:
Conditioned by
mental fermentation (āsava)
does ignorance emerge:
That is multi-factorially, on the long-term, as a hidden latent
tendency:
Ignorance is caused by the mental fermentation linked to sense-desire.
Ignorance is caused by the mental fermentation associated with views.
Ignorance is caused by the mental fermentation coupled with becoming.
Ignorance is caused by the mental fermentation joined with ignorance
itself!
The emotional causal
component is:
Ignorance is caused by a feeling of neutral
indifference, since this absence
of both pleasure and pain promotes neglect
disabling examination, which then
logically results in not knowing
the specifics of the object = ignorance...
Ignorance thus grows in a fatal positively self-enhancing feedback-loop!
The Blessed Buddha
said:
Bhikkhus, a beginning of ignorance cannot be pointed out in this way:
Before this point in time, there was no ignorance, afterward it came.
But, Bhikkhus, it can be pointed out in this way:
Caused by this, ignorance comes to be. Bhikkhus, I tell you, ignorance
too
has a causing condition! What is the causing condition of
ignorance?
The
five mental hindrances is the correct answer...
Source:
AN X 61, AN X 62
What is ignorance, what is the origin of ignorance, what is the ceasing
of
ignorance, and what is the way leading to the ceasing of
ignorance?
Not knowing about suffering, not knowing about the origin of suffering,
not knowing about the ceasing of suffering, not knowing about the
way
leading to the ceasing of suffering, this is called ignorance!
With the arising of the mental fermentations, ignorance also arises.
With the ceasing of the mental fermentations, ignorance also ceases!
The way leading to the ceasing of ignorance is just this
Noble 8-fold Way:
That is: Right view, right motivation, right speech, right action, right
livelihood,
right effort, right awareness, and right concentration.
Source:
MN 9
More on Ignorance (avijjā):
Ignorance,
What_is_Ignorance,
Whenever_and_Wherever,
The_Causes_of_Ignorance,
Indifference_Creates_Ignorance,
What_is_the_Cause_of_Ignorance,
Because_of_Not_Knowing,
Because_of_Not_Examining,
Indifference_Creates_Ignorance
For Details on the Mental Fermentations
(āsava)
please see:
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/DPPN/wtb/a/aasava.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/The_Proximate_Cause.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/Cause_of_Ignorance.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/II/The_Three_Fermentations.htm
http://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/III/Freed_from_Fermentation.htm
What Causes Ignorance?
