{"collection":"Sacred Texts: Buddhism","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_bud_bits_bits026_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_bud_bits_bits026_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_bud_bits_bits026_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/bud/bits/bits026.htm","summary":"This is a scholarly Buddhist doctrinal text, specifically an excerpt from the *Visuddhimagga* (Path of Purification) by Buddhaghosa, a 5th-century Therav\u0101da commentarial work drawing on the P\u0101li Canon (Sutta-Pi\u1e6daka and Abhidhamma-Pi\u1e6daka). The passage provides a systematic analysis of *avijj\u0101* (ignorance) as a core concept within the doctrine of Dependent Origination (pa\u1e6dicca-samupp\u0101da), defining it as lack of knowledge concerning the Four Noble Truths plus four additional categories (anteriority, posteriority, their combination, and dependent co-arising). A distinctive argument is made against treating ignorance as a causeless primordial principle\u2014explicitly rejecting any analogy to the S\u0101\u1e43khya *prak\u1e5bti*\u2014while simultaneously explaining why it legitimately serves as a narrative starting-point for teachings on the \"Wheel of Existence\" (sa\u1e43s\u0101ra). The text develops a two-root model in which ignorance generates karma leading to unhappy rebirths, while desire for existence generates karma leading to happy rebirths, illustrated through vivid cattle analogies. It concludes with the claim that the Wheel of Existence is beginningless, has no external creator (contra Brahma), lacks a permanent self as experiencer, and is \"empty with a twelvefold emptiness\"\u2014making the passage valuable for readers interested in classical Therav\u0101da metaphysics, dependent origination, and the Buddhist critique of both self-theories and creator-god doctrines.","tags":["Henry Clarke Warren","Pali Canon Translations","Theravada Buddhism"],"text":null,"title":"Buddhism in Translations - \u00a7 26. Ignorance.","tradition":"Sacred Texts: Buddhism","translated_text":null,"word_count":3249}