Both avijjā and moha seem to carry more metaphysical connotations in the sense that ignorance/delusion is more about things that obscure knowledge of metaphysical reality or things that perpetuate saṃsāra in the broad sense like believing in an enduring, permanent, unchanging Self. They seem less concerned with types of ignorance that reference social realities and circumstances.
I’m looking for an Early Buddhist term specifically for having mistaken views about other social groups or members of the collective, like on other nations, on women, on LGBT people, and so on. An example of the kind of delusion/ignorance I’m talking about here is believing that the neighboring nation’s people are “genetically inferior” and carry some kind of a “wrong” trait (which can then lead to desire to destroy them which is problematic).
Is there a word for that type of ignorance or delusion specifically?
I’m not sure that there is, but there are a couple of related terms.
samānatta means “equality”, literally “same as self”. It’s one of the four qualities of inclusiveness. Eg. AN 8.24.
agati means “bias, prejudice”, literally “wrong way”. It’s part of a set of four—favoritism, hostility, stupidity, and cowardice. These are bad qualities especially for someone in a decision making capacity. For the Sangha, it means things like, you’re appointed a Sangha officer looking after accommodation, and you give the best kuti to your mate.
Even though avijjā and moha are more focused on metaphysics and doctrinal aspects, do you think one or the other (or both) are broad enough to encompass the type of ignorance/delusion described in the original post?
And I appreciate you teaching us those new terms (new to me at least)!
Oh, definitely. I always take moha as the dynamic dimension of avijjā. So avijjā is the absence of knowing the truth, but moha is the active hiding of the truth by twisting reality. It builds on old potentials (things said to us when we were children, for example, too young to understand), then is deliberately activated, pulling out the worst in us, reinforcing it and amplifying it.
