Digital Dictionary of Buddhism

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無知

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: not knowing

Senses:

  • Not cognizing; absence of perception, distinguished into the type of defiled and undefiled 二無知 (Skt. ajña, ajñāna, ajñāna, ajña, mūḍha, acetana, ajānaka, ajānamāna, ajñāta, aparijñāta, apratisaṃkhyāna, abudha, avyutpanna, mahalla, saṃmoha; Tib. mi shes pa). 〔瑜伽論 T 1579.30.305a18〕 To be distinguished from the standard Buddhist notion of nescience, which is expressed as 無明 (avidyā). The latter usually indicates a more fundamental function of non-awareness, such as the basic habit of bifurcating subject and object, whereas the former usually indicates a more specific functional form of non-awareness, as in the Tiantai notion of 塵沙無知, in which case 無知 is equivalent to the Tiantai meaning of 惑. [Charles Muller; source(s): Ui, Hirakawa, Nakamura, Soothill, YBh-Ind]
  • A lack of awareness of concrete matters. [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura]
  • Unintelligent, as is simple physical matter. [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura]
  • Foolish, ignorant. [Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura]
  • Ultimate wisdom considered as static, and independent of differentiation. [Charles Muller; source(s): Soothill]
  • In Lao-Zhang 老莊 thought, 無知 is often used with positive connotations, indicating a lack of reliance on contrived 人爲, goal-attached, or mundane intelligence 人知 in favor of an uncontrived 無爲 straightforward form of cognition. E.g. "常使民無知無欲、使夫知者不敢爲也。" 〔老子 (３)〕 This approach later had an influence on Buddhist commentators such as Sengzhao 僧肇, as well as Chan 禪宗 Buddhism. [Charles Muller; source(s): Iwanami]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 1042

    Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.) 1210d

    Iwanami bukkyō jiten 787

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 1340c

    Fo Guang Dictionary 5096

    Ding Fubao {Digital Version}

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 0767

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)4423b

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1710-2

    Sanskrit-Tibetan Index for the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra (Yokoyama and Hirosawa) {Digital Version}

    Soothill 381

    Copyright provisions

    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 2002-12-23

    Updated: 2017-11-13