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:

• Clinging to our hopes and fears
• Today is the death of yesterday
• Appreciating the whole cycle of impermanence
• The real enemy
• Nonviolence
• Like moths to the flame
• A simple, scientific fact
• Enjoying the bliss of ignorance
• The Self
• Like medicines
• Products and parts
• I don’t give a damn
• Like monkeys
• The spiritual path is a temporary solution
• Emptiness
• A practicing Buddhist
• Beyond nonviolence and meditation
• Relationships
• Emotionally not possible