Forty-two levels of ignorance
Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia is now 14 years old
Our Encyclopedia recently received a wonderful opportunity for a major renewal on its 14th birthday . After many years of growing our Encyclopedia had become bit slow and sometimes even decided not to answer when people knocked on the door.
A very big thank you and blessings to Dmytro Rudiy (rudiy.nl) for his great work in upgrading the server, website and all of the infrastructure and helping make TBE fast and reliable again for everyone!
We kindly ask our readers to help us cover the cost of this important upgrade and also help with the ongoing costs of keeping the Encyclopedia alive and freely available.
or card
Every little donation helps and every one is deeply appreciated. 🙏🙏🙏
OM AH HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUM 🙏🙏🙏
May blessings shower down on all of yous 🙏🙏🙏
forty-two levels of ignorance
四十二品の無明 (Jpn shijunihon-no-mumyo )
Also, forty-two levels of illusion. There are two versions of this concept.
(1) The specific illusions associated with each of the final forty-two stages of bodhisattva practice, from the ten stages of security through the highest stage of perfect enlightenment. After eliminating all those illusions, one attains perfect enlightenment as a Buddha.
(2) The forty-two levels of illusion into which T'ient'ai (538-597) divided the third of the three categories of illusion, "illusions about the true nature of existence." They are kinds of ignorance concerning the true nature of life—illusions that prevent bodhisattvas from attaining enlightenment. The last and most deeply rooted of the forty-two is called fundamental darkness or fundamental ignorance. According to T'ient'ai, one attains enlightenment by eradicating these successive levels of ignorance or illusions and finally freeing oneself from fundamental darkness.