Is ignorance a form of superstition?
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There are many varieties of delusion, and probably many ways to categorize them. I’ve heard one way of categorization that was interesting. This was from Alex Berzin. (Alex Berzin often talks from the perspective of Prasangika Madhyamaka , but here he was talking in very general terms .)
He said there are two main forms of illusion/delusion/ignorance (Berzin uses the word 'unawareness').
1. Doctrinally based illusion/delusion/ignorance. This one is based on something one has learned. F.ex. one might believe that God is the creator of the universe and that one has an irreducible ever lasting soul that is either going to heaven or hell. Or – more common, at least in the Western secularized societies – one might believe in science and assume that science is objectively right and think that if something cannot be measured scientifically it simply do not exist (an example here might be some behaviorists claim that consciousness is a superfluous concept and emotions are behavior).
2. The other form is "automatically" arising illusion/delusion/ignorance. This is not based on something you have heard or learned or indoctrination, but rather based on our karma. An example might be the feeling and belief that I have a core self, something that is holding all experience together, the “stuff that makes me me.” The belief that external reality is independent and self-existent, not imputed by mind, is another example.
I’ve been thinking about this and it seems to me that all kinds of illusion/delusion/ignorance could be categorized as forms of *superstition*.
Is Buddhism really all about recognizing that we have always been superstitious?
Does the Buddha talk specifically about illusion/delusion/ignorance as superstition in the suttas?
Asked by Mr. Concept
(2683 rep)
Dec 10, 2015, 10:11 AM
Last activity: Dec 10, 2015, 04:33 PM
Last activity: Dec 10, 2015, 04:33 PM