There are twelve links of conditioned origination, from ignorance to knowledge, and so forth, so if there is no ignorance, there is no next one, etc. These twelve links of causation, pratitya samutpada, from ignorance to old age and death, present the Abhidharma theory of how existence follows this process. So when we say, “…No ignorance to no old age and death,” it allows us to retrace the reasons for our suffering back to ignorance, and there is no further place to reach. Historically, the original form of twelve causations was taught by Shakyamuni Buddha to his disciples not as a theory, but as a more psychological approach to each student. Thus, why do you say this cup exists? Because you are attached to it, because you sense it, you know it exists. If it is not in your realm of knowing (Kobun puts the cup behind him), you cannot say it exists.
Ignorance is the first of the twelve links of causation. Avidya is the original term. Vidya means “lightened.” A is “not,” or “no.” “Not-lightened.” In Chinese this avidya is translated “mu myo.” “Mu” is always “mu.” “Myo” is “sun” on one side of the character, and “moon” on the other side. Sun and moon. So “Mu sun and moon” means “no light existence.” It means the world of existence which has no light. “Mu myo.” So, it’s like a person who wakes up at midnight and has no light. His eyes are open, but he cannot see. There is nothing but darkness. Everything exists in the darkness, so it is not a state of nothing existing, but maybe he feels that it is. He cannot see where he is. He has no awareness of or communication with his surroundings. Darkness is inside and outside.
The Lotus Sutra and
There was a very heavy duty in the monastery: In monastic life, over twenty-four hours your action has to be exact, so when you do something in an uncertain way, you know at the same time what should be done. When you are a beginner, and hit the bells or drums, everyone hears the sounds you make. Even when the Abbot is way up the mountain (Many teachers are like an old fox on the mountain.) he hears you hitting that bell. I was always embarrassed, because, in the monastery, you live by your actions, you lay your body down in tradition. I always thought, “I must do a good job,” and it was always a better job I must do. I knew reality very well, and I knew the ideal very well, so when I went from reality to the ideal, always a mistake appeared! For instance, after hitting the bell more times than needed, I had to say, “I’m sorry.” Everybody said, “Somebody is hitting the bell a funny way!” But many people do not care when a mistake appears! (October 7, 1974)
Vimalakirti Sutra are very famous for discussing “mu myo,” or avidya. And in Zen practice this “mu myo” or avidya is one of the basic and most difficult hindrances to go over. Five hindrances hinder our vidya, our awakened state of mind and body. These are desires for property, sexual love, food and drink, fame, and sleep. In the Lotus Sutra blind desires are caused by “mu myo,” or ignorance. In the darkness you cannot see your hand, you can feel only an extension of your body, so you wish to have it as your hand even though you already have it. From the very beginning there is a split feeling. You desire to have something which seems to exist as a separate body in the external world: “I and you. I and that.” And you desire to have “that,” or the “other.” This is “mu myo,” avidya.
Awareness of ignorance is very basic to the arising of religions in this world. In Western history it appeared as original sin. I don’t know what the actual situation was, but in Genesis you see this ignoring of the warning of the Absolute by a man. Genesis also explains the origin of science, of the scientific attitude of mind in humankind. So, in the one body of us, it may be that you see in the history of humankind your own self-consciousness. “That is how I was.” Before that there was ignorance, of course. You didn’t know you were ignorant before, since awareness of ignorance is different from ignorance. That is the secret of the origin of the religious mind.