Definition of Ignorance

[am7]

Hi, this too did not make sense to me if I were to translate ‘consciousness’ to imply awareness. For how would one make a volitional decision/choice if not aware first? Maybe others do not make this implication and understand the term ‘consciousness’ in English differently.

I’ve spent some time researching this term and will post the relevant references:

The word here is viññāna, verb is Vijānāti

PTS Pali English Dictionary

vijānāti

1. to have discriminative (dis = vi˚) knowledge, to recognize, apprehend, ascertain, to become aware of, to understand, notice, perceive, distinguish learn, know

With such translation, choices would be condition to discrimination and discrimination would be condition to name & form.
For me this would make sense, because as one makes choices one learns to discriminate better to make even better choices. Also one discriminates between name & form.

MN43 translated by I.B. Horner translates it as “discriminative consciousness”

Free book from Venerable Bhikkhu Kaṭukurunde translates it on page 5. as discrimination

Here are posts that focused on finding alternate translations of this term:

The Nature of Vinnana?

Sharing another finding regarding yet another alternate translation: in MN43 translated by I.B. Horner viññāna is translated as “discriminative consciousness”: “Your reverence, it is called ‘Discriminative consciousness, discriminative consciousness.’ Now in what respects, your reverence, is it called ‘discriminative consciousness’?” “Your reverence, if it said ‘It discriminates, it discriminates,’ it is therefore called discriminative consciousness. And what does it discriminate? It discrimin…

The Nature of Vinnana?

After spending some time on a search for some sources on this topic to locate a book or quotes from people who might consider viññāṇa as discrimination/discernment, I’ve happened to stumble upon a free book from Venerable Bhikkhu Kaṭukurunde . It has quite an imposing title, but ignoring that, the excerpt from the book from the end of page 5 states: In his letter Bhante has mentioned the importance of understanding the difference between vijānāti and pajānāti when it comes to discussing viññ…

The Nature of Vinnana?

Since you ask, and instead of relying on feeling, how about we check the suttas if when translated with ‘discernment’ we find obvious problems, we can quickly and safely discard such idea. However, if we do not find obvious paradoxes with it and rather find paradoxes with the translation of ‘consciousness’ then we can put more effort into this endeavor. Let’s start our analysis based on suttas For example how about we check MN140 (for translation as ‘consciousness’ click on the link, here let…

In the end, you will have to decide what makes sense. However I believe it is good to know that there are alternate translations available.