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Avidya

Avidya, pronounced avidyā, is a Sanskrit word meaning Ignorance, delusion, unlearned, unwise. It is used extensively in Buddhist and Hindu texts, including the Upanishads.

Buddhist concept

Avidya plays a key role in Buddhism and Buddhist doctrine and is the primary cause of suffering in Samsara.

As one of the Three Fires, Avidya leads to craving (Skt: Trsna) and clinging (Skt: Upadana).
As the first spoke on the Wheel of Life, all subsequent states follow in its wake.
As the first link of Pratitya-Samutpada, all other links depend on it.

The antidote to Avidya is Prajna wisdom. This is achieved by practicing awareness/mindfulness (Pal: Sati Skt: Smrti), patient endurance (Skt: Ksanti) and meditation (Skt: Dhyana), All three of which are incorporated in the Theravadin practice of Eightfold Path and the Mahayana practice of the Paramitas (Path of Perfection).

From one to six aspects

Avidya is a lack of knowing, and can be associated with intention. Avidya has three aspects as associates to three kinds of sensations, and presents four aspects as the ignorance of the Four Noble Truths, and five aspects as masking the five destinies (see : Samsara). Avidya has six aspects as associated to any of the six doors, the six senses (see: Sadayatana).

In Advaita Vedanta

The work of avidya is to suppress the real nature of things and present something else in its place. In essence it is not different from Maya (pronounced Māyā). Avidya relates to the finite Self while Maya is an adjunct of the cosmic Self. In both cases it connotes the principle of differentiation which is implicit in human thinking. It stands for that delusion which breaks up the original unity of what is real and presents it as subject and object and as doer and result of the deed. What keeps Man captive is this avidya. This ignorance is not lack of erudition; it is ignorance about the nature of Being. It is a limitation that is natural to human sensory or intellectual apparatus. This is responsible for all the misery of man. Advaita Vedanta holds that the eradication of it should be man's only goal and that will automatically mean Realisation of the Self.

Adi Shankara on Avidya

Adi Shankara says in his Introduction to his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, "Owing to an absence of discrimination, there continues a natural human behaviour in the form of 'I am this' or 'This is mine'; this is avidya. It is a superimposition of the attributes of one thing on another. The ascertainment of the nature of the real entity by separating the superimposed thing from it is is vidya (knowledge, illumination)". In Shankara's philosophy avidya cannot be categorized either as 'absolutely existent' or as 'absolutely non-existent'.

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