There was another meeting tonight of the Collier Hills Civic Association, this time with a Christmas party. The meeting covered the same news as last time - roadwork on Northside Drive, sidewalks on Collier Road, expansion at Piedmont Hospital and so on. The meeting was in a neighbor's house - in fact, the same house in front of which I locked my car keys inside of my Jeep last October. For tonight's party, she had cooked a fabulous dinner and afterwards my neighbors and I sat around eating, talking, socializing and scheming.
I've been thinking more about ignorance today, though. Yesterday, the difference between mundane ignorance - lack of knowledge or education - and Buddhist ignorance - lack of wisdom - was established. According to Buddha, ignorance means to mistake the true for the false and the false for the true. Thus, ignorance includes not only the absence of wisdom but also the presence of delusion. In the standard explanation of these terms, the Buddha said ignorance consists in being ignorant of cause and effect and ignorant of the way things are.
Hui-ching says, "Deluded people cling to the existance of the Five Aggregates and the Eighteen Elements and obstruct their own nature and don't see its light. This is what is meant by 'ignorance.'"
Deva says, "The deluded mind grasps appearances and clings to them without let up. This is called 'ignorance.' To understand its source is to bring it to an end."
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And that ignorance plays out all over the place, from my 3 year old son, who thinks that throwing a temper tantrum is what he should do when he "needs" something, to the current Social Security bait and switch while the focus is on "values."
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