avijjã: Fundamental ignorance. This ignorance is the central factor in the delusion about the true nature of oneself and therefore the essential factor binding living beings to the cycle of rebirth. Avijjã exists entirely within the citta (the one who knows). Being an integral part of the citta’s con­scious perspective since time-without beginning, it has usurped the citta’s “knowing nature” and distorted its intrinsic quality of simply “knowing” by creating the false duality of the “knower” and the “known”. From this individual viewpoint spring right and wrong, good and evil, heaven and hell, and the whole mass of suffering that comprises the world of samsãra. Thus avijjã is the seed of being and birth, the very nucleus of all existence. It is also the well-spring from which all other mental defilements arise.

Far from appearing dark and menacing, avijjã is the epitome of all the mental and spiritual virtues that living beings hold in the very highest esteem. This is its beguiling allure, the reason why living beings cannot se, e it for what it actually is—the great lord and master of birth and death. Appearing at first to be the ultimate in virtue and happiness, the citta’s true abiding sanctuary, when wisdom finally penetrates to its core and exposes its fundamental deception, avijjã promptly dissipates, revealing the pure, unblemished citta, the true Supreme Happiness, Nibbãna.

无明(avijjā)：根本无知。这无知是对自我真正的本质产生迷惑的核心根源，所以它也是众生轮回生死的根本原因。无明完全存在于知道者——心(citta)——中。无始以来它就混合成为心认识作用的一部分，它篡夺心知道的特性，使本来只是单纯的知道功能被扭曲，产生二元对立的“能知者”与“所知者”。并从这个自我的观点产生对错、善恶、天堂与地狱乃至纯大苦聚，构成轮回的世间。所以无明是“有”和“生”，一切存在的核心。它也是其他一切烦恼的根源。它显现出来的绝不是黑暗或恐吓性的形象。相反的，它以众生极端尊重的善良和崇高的心灵这种形象出现，令人迷惑的受引诱，这是众生无法看透它真面目——生与死的最终统治者——的原因。它一开始就伪装成最崇高的善和快乐、心真正的归依处来显现自己。当智慧最终渗透它的核心，暴露出它的根本欺诈时，无明就被熄灭。此时，纯净圆满的心、真正的快 乐——涅槃——就显露出来。