Dalai Lama on Ignorance

Sun, 11 Jun 2006 01:48:12 +0200

Source to be confirmed as the Dalai Lama giving a teaching on Thursday, May 7, 1998 in the countryside of Washington, New Jersey.:

The heart of existence is the desire to seek happiness and overcome suffering, which is a natural human instinct.

The Buddha speaks of the endlessness and beginninglessness of mind. Nothing exists outside the bounds of causation, both in the reality of consciousness and the outside world. In the material world, an object must have either a substantial or a material cause to exist. Looking at mental phenomena, there must be a continuum maintained by entities. However, not every instance of consciousness has endlessness. There are many levels of subtleties, as we are contingent (on physical organs) and timebound. Within consciousness, there must be something unique, a luminous nature. Awareness. Some are not contingent on any physical or temporal elements.

In Buddhism, the nature of self (or "I") is designated upon this continuum of consciousness, said to be beginningless and endless. This means that the self is based on consciousness and a transformation of the mind.

Ignorance leads to volition (leads to other steps) leads to suffering. These Seven Links can be reversed. It is possible to eliminate ignorance through prayer or other behavior. The process cultivates insight and eliminates illusion. Knowledge leads to happiness and enlightenment. "Long term fruits of cultivating knowledge" leads to enlightenment in Buddhist texts. Joy, liberation and enlightenment are from states of mind that are not deluded, based on real points of experience. Cultivating the right knowledge and insight is crucial for our spiritual selves. The more education a person gets, the better informed the person is to deal with life.

How does cultivating knowledge help us eliminate ignorance? We can use an analogy of illumination and darkness. As soon as a light is turned on, darkness disappears. It is mutual exclusivity. In our thoughts, we can know that an object is either a tree or is not a tree -- one thought excludes the possibility of the other. Looking at wisdom vs. ignorance, the latter is an active case of "mis-knowing" (not just NOT knowing); the former, an insight, is grounded in valued cognition. Fundamental ignorance does not have validity. Of directly opposing thoughts, whichever has the support of grounded experience has more power and validity.

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Dalai Lama on Ignorance