Does Ignorance Have an Origin?

Ignorance (avidyā) is called ignorance precisely because it is non-luminosity. Non-luminosity has no place of origin, and having no place of origin means it has no place from which it comes. If ignorance had a place of origin and a place from which it comes, then where would ignorance come from? Before ignorance arose, there was luminosity, and if there was luminosity, then that would be a Buddha. Yet sentient beings have never been Buddhas; and if one had been a Buddha, it would be impossible for ignorance to arise again and turn one back into a sentient being.

The manas has possessed ignorance since beginningless kalpas; it was originally non-luminous and was never a Buddha to begin with. Ignorance did not arise later from somewhere, transforming from luminosity into non-luminosity. We can plainly see that in the world there is no dharma that gives birth to ignorance; ignorance has no place of origin and no place from which it comes. If ignorance had a place it came from, it would also have a place it returns to — where would it come from? Where would it return to? If ignorance had a place to return to and gathered in some location, then one day ignorance would reach bursting point and burst out, once again endowing the manas with ignorance, and the Buddha would once again become a sentient being. Such a thing cannot happen; otherwise, studying Buddhism and attaining buddhahood would be meaningless — after all the arduous effort, one still could not escape the great suffering of birth and death, and sentient beings would remain sentient beings forever.

If ignorance had a place it came from, then before beginningless kalpas there would have been no ignorance, and ignorance would be a later arrival. When there was no ignorance, that would be a Buddha — so how could a Buddha give birth to ignorance and become a sentient being? And when ignorance is extinguished, where is it extinguished to? Ignorance has no root; it is not a real entity. It has no place it comes from and no place it is extinguished to. When luminosity arrives, ignorance naturally disappears; the two do not coexist — when one arises, the other vanishes; when one exists, the other does not, just as the two ends of a balance rise and fall simultaneously.