As to the question how the avijjâ (ignorance) first started there can be no answer, for we could never say that either ignorance or desire for existence ever has any beginning [Footnote ref 1]. Its fruition is seen in the cycle of existence and the sorrow that comes in its train, and it comes and goes with them all. Thus as we can never say that it has any beginning, it determines the elements which bring about cycles of existence and is itself determined by certain others. This mutual determination can only take place in and through the changing series of dependent phenomena, for there is nothing which can be said to have any absolute priority in time or stability. It is said that it is through the coming into being of the âsavas or depravities that the avijjâ came into being, and that through the destruction of the depravities (âsava) the avijjâ was destroyed [Footnote ref 2]. These âsavas are classified in the Dhammasa@nga@ni as kâmâsava, bhavâsava, di@t@thâsava and avijjâsava. Kâmâsava means desire, attachment, pleasure, and thirst after the qualities associated with the senses; bhavâsava means desire, attachment and will for existence or birth; di@t@thâsava means the holding of heretical views, such as, the world is eternal or non-eternal, or that the world will come to an end or will not come to an end, or that the body and the soul are one or are different; avijjâsava means the ignorance of sorrow, its cause, its extinction and its means of extinction. Dhammasa@nga@ni adds four more supplementary ones, viz. ignorance about the nature of anterior mental khandhas, posterior mental khandhas, anterior and posterior together, and their mutual dependence [Footnote ref 3]. Kâmâsava and bhavâsava can as Buddhagho@sa says be counted as one, for they are both but depravities due to attachment [Footnote ref 4].
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[Footnote 1: Warren's Buddhism in Translations (Visuddhimagga, chap.
XVII.), p. 175.]
[Footnote 2: M. N. I.p. 54. Childers translates "âsava" as "depravities" and Mrs Rhys Davids as "intoxicants." The word "âsava" in Skr. means "old wine." It is derived from "su" to produce by Buddhagho@sa and the meaning that he gives to it is "cira pârivâsika@t@thena" (on account of its being stored up for a long time like wine). They work through the eye and the mind and continue to produce all beings up to Indra. As those wines which are kept long are called "âsavas" so these are also called âsavas for remaining a long time. The other alternative that Buddhagho@sa gives is that they are called âsava on account of their producing sa@msâradukkha (sorrows of the world), Atthasâlinî, p. 48. Contrast it with Jaina âsrava (flowing in of karma matter). Finding it difficult to translate it in one word after Buddhagho@sa, I have translated it as "depravities," after Childers.]
[Footnote 3: See Dhammasa@nga@ni, p. 195.]
[Footnote 4: Buddhagho@sa's Atthasâlinî, p. 371.]
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The di@t@thâsavas by clouding the mind with false metaphysical views stand in the way of one's adopting the true Buddhistic doctrines. The kâmasâvas stand in the way of one's entering into the way of Nirvâ@na (anâgâmimagga) and the bhavâsavas and avijjâsavas stand in the way of one's attaining arha or final emancipation. When the Majjhima Nikâya says that from the rise of the âsavas avijjâ rises, it evidently counts avijjâ there as in some sense separate from the other âsavas, such as those of attachment and desire of existence which veil the true knowledge about sorrow.
The afflictions (kilesas) do not differ much from the âsavas for they are but the specific passions in forms ordinarily familiar to us, such as covetousness (lobha), anger or hatred (dosa), infatuation (moha), arrogance, pride or vanity (mâna), heresy (di@t@thi), doubt or uncertainty (vicikicchâ), idleness (thîna), boastfulness (udhacca), shamelessness (ahirika) and hardness of heart anottapa); these kilesas proceed directly as a result of the âsavas. In spite of these varieties they are often counted as three (lobha, dosa, moha) and these together are called kilesa. They are associated with the vedanâkkhandha, saññâkkhandha, sa@nkhârakkhandha and viññânakkhandha. From these arise the three kinds of actions, of speech, of body, and of mind [Footnote ref 1].
Sîla and Samâdhi.