Does Ignorance Have a Place of Origin?

Ignorance (avidyā) is called ignorance precisely because it is non-knowing; non-knowing 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 came, then where would ignorance originate from? Before ignorance arose, there was knowing; since there was knowing, 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 him into a sentient being.

The manas has possessed ignorance since beginningless kalpas; it has been non-knowing from the very beginning and was never a Buddha. Ignorance did not arise later from somewhere, transforming knowing into non-knowing. 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 of origin, it would also have a place of return—where would that place of origin be? Where would that place of return be? If ignorance had a place of return and accumulated in some location, then one day the ignorance would fill to bursting and rush out, once again causing the manas to possess ignorance, and the Buddha would once again become a sentient being. Such a thing will never happen; otherwise, studying Buddhism and attaining buddhahood would be meaningless—despite 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 of origin, then before beginningless kalpas there would have been no ignorance; ignorance would have come later, and when there was no ignorance, that would have been a Buddha. 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 and is not a substantial entity; it has no place of origin and no place of cessation. When knowing arrives, ignorance naturally vanishes—the two cannot coexist: when this arises, that fades; when this exists, that does not, like the two ends of a scale: when one is low, the other is high, simultaneously and in equal measure.