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Ajñāna
471
just as the terms of apệta (untrue) and amitra (not friend). They do not express merely the negative sense, i.e. the absence of truth or that of friends, but something positive which goes against the sense of the term without negation. They mean falsity and enmity respectively. Similarly, avidyā means a knowledge which is not vidyā i. e. perverted knowledge. As a matter of fact avidyā is the dirt of knowledge. Avyāksta prajña is simple kaowledge and cannot be classified in either of the two. It is like darśana of the Jainas. The Buddhist also accepts that vidyā leads to salvation and avidyā to bondage 1
But unlike Jainism the Buddhist does not hold vidyā and avidyā on the same level in respect of their objective side. According to Jainism the object appears similar in both cases, but, it is conceived differently. In vidyā the conception is nonabsolutistic wbile in avidyā it is absolutistic. According to Bud. dhism the conceptual knowledge is loka-samvști-satya, i.e. true in discursive consideration only. It is not paramārthasatya i. e. true in reality. The real truth relates to the knowledge of four noble truths only.
At the same time the Buddhist does not distinguish vidyā from avidyā on subjective consideration as the Jainas do. According to Buddhist both are common with every-body. The only difference between an enlightened and the layman is that the former has realized the truth while the latter has pot. As far as their cognition of external objects is concerned they are on the same level. The enlightened having realized the truth concentrates on it and purifies his mind, Purification does not mean the absence of discursive knowledge but abstinance from vices (akusala) and leaning towards virtuous deeds (kuśala). This purification gradually slackens the worldly ties, the group of which is recognized as the self. Ultimately, when all the ties break away, the self does not exist any more, it attains the state of pirvāņa.
1. Abbidharmakosa II. 28
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