Quote
kai
How do you translate this?
This is a highly delicate yet complicated Buddism concept, containing a LOT more deep connotations than just what these 4 characters may seem to carry.
Wu Ming (無明) means the ignorance and distress of us as mortal human being. We, health or ill, rich or poor, all suffer from all kinds of troubles and disappoints (not mentioning the final trial of mortality), and this is because we are stuck in the "Wu Ming (無明)".
There are two kinds of "Wu Ming (無明)" according to the Budda - 一念無明 and 無始無明.
From the name you can imagine that it won't be a short article if I want to elaborate them in a clear way. Let's just put it in short:
"一念無明" refers to the ignorance and distress that the buddism practioners encounter due to all kinds of their desires. The term "一念" may come from the saying "一念才滅，一念又起" - we got all kinds of desires / hopes / wishes / pursuits, and they created obstacles in our way to the ultimate truth of the universe.
But yeah, how to translate it? We can't just use all these paragraphs of text as its translation. As a Cantonese language translator, let me give it a try:
Desires Based Ignorance
Still, the connotations go far beyond the text...