Ignorance is simply not knowing the facts, having the facts wrong, or having incomplete knowledge. All of these forms of ignorance lead to misunderstanding and misinterpretation, overestimation and underestimation.

Suppose that you are searching for your friend and you see him in a distant field. When you approach, you discover that you have mistaken a scarecrow for your friend. You are bound to be disappointed. It is not as if either the mischievous scarecrow or your friend tried sneakily to mislead you, it is your own ignorance that betrayed you.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche

from the book What Makes You Not a Buddhist

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Further quotes from the book What Makes You Not a Buddhist:

• Enlightened beings may seem insane
• Buddhist renunciation
• What is life?
• The Self
• The habit of self
• Pride and pity
• Emotionally not possible
• Change is inevitable
• Beyond nonviolence and meditation
• Eventually we are disappointed
• Like a child at the cinema
• Four seals
• Enjoying the bliss of ignorance
• The impossible is possible
• The real source of fear is not knowing
• Happily ever after
• Like moths to the flame
• Shielding ourselves and others from the truth
• Fearlessness
• Driven by ambitions