“Avidya (Hinduism)”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Avidyā, in all Dharmic systems, represents fundamental ignorance and misperception of the phenomenal world.^[3] However, the Indian religions disagree on the details, for example with Hinduism considering a denial and misconceptions of Atman (soul, self) as a form of Avidya, and Buddhism considering the denial and misconceptions of An-atman (non-soul, non-self) as a form of Avidya.^[2]^[2]^[3]

Etymology and meaning

The word avidyā is derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *weid-, meaning "to see" or "to know". It is a cognate of Latin vidēre (which would turn to "video") and English "wit".

While Avidya found in Indian philosophies is translated as "ignorance", states Alex Wayman, this is a mistranslation because Avidya means more than ignorance. He suggests the term "unwisdom" to be a better rendition.^[7] The term includes not only ignorance out of darkness, but also obscuration, misconceptions, mistaking illusion to be reality or impermanent to be permanent or suffering to be bliss or non-self to be self (delusions).^[7] Incorrect knowledge is another form of Avidya, states Wayman.^[7]

Avidya represents fundamental ignorance, state Jones and Ryan, a misperception of the phenomenal world.^[8] In Hinduism, Avidya includes confusing the mundane reality to be the only reality, and it as a permanent though it is ever changing.^[8] Its doctrines assert that there is a spiritual reality consisting of Atman-Brahman, one that is the true, eternal, imperishable reality beyond time.^[8]^[9]^[10]

Texts

Avidya in the earliest Vedic texts is ignorance, and in later Vedic texts evolves to include anything that is a "positive hindrance" to spiritual or nonspiritual knowledge.^[21] In the Upanishads, the concept includes "lack of knowledge, inadequate knowledge and false knowledge".^[11]

In Advaita Vedanta

The effect of avidya is to suppress the real nature of things and present something else in its place. In effect it is not different from Maya (pronounced Māyā) or illusion. Avidya relates to the individual Self (Ātman), while Maya is an adjunct of the cosmic Self (Brahman). In both cases it connotes the principle of differentiation of an experienced reality into the subject ('I') and an object, as is implicit in human thinking. Avidya stands for that delusion which breaks up the original unity (refer: nonduality) of what is real and presents it as subject and object and as doer and result of the deed. What keeps humanity captive in Samsara is this avidya. This ignorance,"the ignorance veiling our true self and the truth of the world",^[12] is not lack of erudition; it is ignorance about the nature of 'Being' (Sat). It is a limitation that is natural to human sensory or intellectual apparatus. This is responsible for all the misery of humanity. Advaita Vedanta holds that the eradication of it should be humanity's only goal and that will automatically mean realisation of the Self (Ātman).

Adi Shankara says in his Introduction to his commentary on the Brahma Sutras, "Owing to an absence of discrimination, there continues a natural human behaviour in the form of 'I am this' or 'This is mine'; this is avidya. It is a superimposition of the attributes of one thing on another. The ascertainment of the nature of the real entity by separating the superimposed thing from it is vidya (knowledge, illumination)". In Shankara's philosophy avidya cannot be categorized either as 'absolutely existent' or as 'absolutely non-existent'.

See also

References

1. ^{{cite book|author1=Richard Francis Gombrich|author2=Cristina Anna Scherrer-Schaub|title=Buddhist Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U7_Rea05eAMC|year=2008|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|isbn=978-81-208-3248-0|pages=209–210}}
2. ^{{cite book|author=Sengaku Mayeda |title=A Thousand Teachings: The Upadesasahasri of Sankara |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Jc9RHYN3qsC |year=2006|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-2771-4 |pages=76–78 }}
3. ^{{cite book | last =Trainor | first =Kevin | year =2004 | title =Buddhism: The Illustrated Guide | publisher =Oxford University Press | isbn =978-0-19-517398-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_PrloTKuAjwC|page=74}}
4. ^¹²{{cite book|author=Monier Monier-Williams|title=A Sanskrit-English Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_3NWAAAAcAAJ|year=1872|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=918}}
5. ^{{cite book|author=Ian Whicher |title=The Integrity of the Yoga Darsana: A Reconsideration of Classical Yoga |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_Qo9K9hPvQgC&pg=PA110|year=1998|publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-0-7914-3815-2 |page=110, see both translations on the same page by Ian Whicher}}
6. ^{{cite book|author=Mariasusai Dhavamony |title=Phenomenology of Religion |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ALfSPvRO7DgC&pg=PA297|date=1973 |publisher=Gregorian |isbn=978-88-7652-474-5|page=297}}
7. ^¹²³⁴{{cite journal|title= The Meaning of Unwisdom (Avidya)| author= Alex Wayman|journal = Philosophy East and West| volume= 7| number= 1/2| year= 1957| pages= 21–25 | jstor= 1396830| doi=10.2307/1396830}}
8. ^¹²³⁴{{cite book|author1=Constance Jones |author2=James D. Ryan |title=Encyclopedia of Hinduism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OgMmceadQ3gC |year=2006|publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=978-0-8160-7564-5 |pages=57 }}
9. ^[a] M Hiriyanna (2000), The Essentials of Indian Philosophy, Motilal Banarsidass, {{ISBN|978-8120813304}}, pp. 25, 160-161;
[b] Wendy Doniger O'Flaherty (1986), Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities, University of Chicago Press, {{ISBN|978-0226618555}}, pages 118-119
10. ^Lynn Foulston and Stuart Abbott (2009), Hindu Goddesses: Beliefs and Practices, Sussex Academic Press, {{ISBN|978-1902210438}}, pages 14-16
11. ^¹{{cite book|author=Ben-Ami Scharfstein |title=Comparative History of World Philosophy, A: From the Upanishads to Kant |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1xXJBZLn04IC |year=1998|publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-1-4384-1887-2|pages=376–377 with footnotes }}
12. ^{{cite web|last=Mohrhoff|first=Ulrich|title=The Veil of Avidya|url=http://thisquantumworld.com/PDF/Avidya.pdf|publisher=Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Pondicherry, India}}