Commentary on the Sutra of the Compendium of Fathers and Sons (178)

The Buddha said: "Indeed, O King, it is so. Ignorant ordinary beings, lacking in learning and wisdom, upon encountering agreeable sensory contact, give rise to delight and attachment. Their minds become defiled and cling, thus creating such karma: three kinds of bodily karma, four kinds of verbal karma, and three kinds of mental karma. Having created that karma, it perishes in an instant. After that karma ceases, it does not abide in the east, south, west, or north, nor in the four intermediate directions, above, below, or in between. Yet at the time of death, they see their past deeds manifesting in their thoughts, like someone recalling a dream upon waking. When the final consciousness ceases, their own karma manifests before them."

Ignorance means lack of understanding—not understanding what the five aggregates are, not understanding their illusory nature, not understanding the emptiness of all phenomena, not understanding that this false self is a composite, not understanding how to dismantle it, not understanding how to escape the cycle of rebirth in the six realms, not understanding how to attain the bodhisattva fruits, not understanding how to realize one's original nature—the inherently pure mind—and even not understanding how to attain Buddhahood. All this constitutes ignorance and delusion.