Avidya

Mistaking the transient for the permanent, the impure for the pure, pain for pleasure, and that which is not the self for the self: All this is called lack of spiritual knowledge, avidya. — yoga sutras

According to the Yoga Sutras, avidya is the source of all our troubles. .. It is as though we grew up in a dark room filled with hot stoves. To make matters worse, there were people in the room trying to get us to touch those hot stoves. Growing up consists of touching one stove after the next as we slowly come to understand the nature of our predicament. At first we learn to back off when we start to fell the heat. We also begin to question the voices that are promoting intimacy with hot stoves as the key to right living. Eventually we find out that there is someone in that dark room who wants us to turn on the light. Initially we are too busy getting burned to listen, but in some still moment, as we recover from a particularly bad burn, we begin to pay attention for ourselves. Those of us on a spiritual path have entered into a dialog with that voice. And those of us who do actually turn on the light can, in turn, become teachers to the rest of us. — Rolf Gates, Meditations from the Mat