無明

Readings

Pinyin: wúmíng

Wade-Giles: wu-ming

Hangul: 무명

Korean MC: mumyeong

Korean MR: mumyŏng

Katakana: ムミョウ

Hepburn: mumyō

vô minh

nescience

• Ignorance, delusion, folly (Skt. avidyā; Tib. ma rig pa; Pāli avijjā). As the fundamental misunderstanding of reality that underlies all of the suffering of unenlightened people, it is the first of the twelve links of dependent arising 十二因緣. Rather than a lack of factual knowledge it is a basic error in mode of perception that prevents people from seeing things as they really are 不如實智見. For example, not being aware of the fact that all things are ultimately impermanent 無常, or that there is in reality, no such thing as an inherent self 無我. Generally speaking, nescience is seen as the basis for all delusions 迷 and afflictions (惑, 煩惱). [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): Nakamura,Yokoi, YBh-Ind, JEBD,Iwanami]
• In the Sarvâstivāda 有部 doctrine it is categorized as one of the major afflictive mental factors 大煩惱地. In Yogâcāra, it is one of the fundamental afflictions 根本煩惱, where it is usually written 癡. There are, in Yogâcāra and Abhidharma texts, numerous sub-categories of nescience, such as that of the two kinds of nescience 二種無明, etc. [resp. Charles Muller]
• Prior to the arrival of Buddhism in China, this term was used to denote "blindness."[resp. Charles Muller]
• the Awakening of Faith 起信論 distinguishes two kinds as original nescience 根本無明 or beginningless nescience 無始無明, and derivative nescience 枝末無明. There is also a list of fifteen distinctions in the Vibhāṣā-śāstra 2. (Skt. ajñāna, anābhāsa, andha-kāra, avilokana, tamas, bhrānta, mūḍha, mūḍhi, moha, saṃmoha) [resp. Charles Muller; source(s): Soothill, Hirakawa]
• nescience [resp. Paul Swanson]

Dictionary References:

Bukkyō jiten (Ui), 1044

Bulgyo sajeon, 218a

Zengaku daijiten (Komazawa U.), 1212b

Iwanami bukkyō jiten, 789

Japanese-English Buddhist Dictionary (Daitō shuppansha), 203a/226

Japanese-English Zen Buddhist Dictionary (Yokoi), 474

Zengo jiten (Iriya and Koga), 6-P21, 13-P313

Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura), 1346c

Fo Guang Dictionary, 5094

Ding Fubao

Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa), 0765

Index to the Bussho kaisetsu daijiten (Ono), 636

Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki), (v.1-6)4847b,1705a,2322c,3548b,4424b

Bukkyō daijiten (Oda), 736-1-7*1716-3

Sanskrit-Tibetan Index for the Yogâcārabhūmi-śāstra (Yokoyama and Hirosawa)

Copyright © 2010 -- Charles Muller

generated: 2014-02-10