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Houn Kobun Zenji
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On the subject of ignorance
Ignorance is the first of the twelve links of causation. "Avidya" is the original term. Vidya means "Lightened." "A" is "Not" or "No." Not-lightened. So in Chinese, this avidya is translated "Mu myo." "Mu" we say Mu, always Mu. "Myo" is, one side of character is "Sun" and the other side of character is "Moon." Sun and Moon. Mu-sun and moon. No light existance. The world of existance which has no light, Mu Myo. So, it's like a person who wakes up at midnight and has no light. His eyes are open, but he cannot see, there is nothing but darkness. Everything exists in the darkness so it is not like a state of nothing exists, but maybe he feels that it is because he can't see anything. He cannot see where he is, and where he is means no awareness of, no communications with his surroundings. Whether standing or lying or sitting, he cannot figure out where he is because darkness is inside and outside.
The Lotus sutra and Vimalakirti sutra are very famous for discussing Mu myo avidya. And in Zen practice, this Mu myo avidya is one of the basic and most difficult hindrances to go over. Five hindrances, five which hinder our vidya, our awakened state of mind and body. Desires for property, sexual love, food and drink, fame and sleep. In the Lotus sutra, blind desires are caused by Mu myo, or ignorance. Like you wish to have a hand, which you have already, but you cannot feel it, so you desire to have that which you have already. In the darkness you cannot see your hand. You cannot feel your hand, so you wish to have it. From the very beginning there is a split feeling, you desire to have something which seems to exist as a separate body in the external world. I and you. I and that. And you desire to have it. In the very beginning there is Mu myo avidya.
Awareness of ignorance is very basic to the arising of religions in the world. Awareness of ignorance, and to have ignorance at the same time. In history, in western history, it appeared as original sin. I don't know how the actual situation was, but in Genesis, in the Bible, you see this ignoring of the absolute by a man. Genesis also explains the origin of science, of the scientific attitude of mind in humankind. So, as the one body of us, you see in the history of humankind your own, maybe, self-consciousness. How I was. Before that there was ignorance, of course. You didn't know you were ignorant either. So awareness of ignorance is different from ignorance. That is the secret of the very origin of the religious mind. The tree was known as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, so when they ate the fruit, that was the beginning of the dualism of knowing.
All instinctive abilities are counted as five hindrances, so these hindrances are not a bad thing. When we gaze at our life, we have to claim it. We have these things. Desire to eat, desire o be known, not only fame, but maybe also to be known by others, to be understood, not merely to be alone. In it there is awareness of friendship and family, of the organic system of life. And eating maintains our life from today into tomorrow and promises existence of time, existence of consciousness of time. And because of your awareness of space in time, you desire material possession. You cannot live in the sky, in empty air. You settle to the ground, you have to have certain places to be, and so maintenance of life appears. And desire to have generation. This is the basic point where man and woman come together. When the time is ripe, it is proper to have right generation. Physically and spiritually, we have to do that. These are all the basic work of instinct.
So the whole question in awareness of living is that of maintenance of life. If you don't eat, you live in perfect innocence all the time. By picking this apple, you maintain individual life, you limit yourself in perfect innocence. So this whole existence, which I spoke as the very instinctive ability of us, i s spoken as karma in Buddhist thought.
Houn Kobun