無始無明

Từ Điển Thuật Ngữ Phật Học Hán Ngữ

元品無明 (or 根本無明) The period of unenlightenment or ignorance without beginning, primal ignorance, also called 無始間隔, the period of transmigration which has no beginning; since under the law of causality everything has a cause, therefore no beginning is possible; for if there were a beginning it would be without cause, which is impossible. Also primal ignorance is without beginning; and the 眞如 is without beginning, the two terms connoting the same idea. 生死 Birth and death, or transmigration are 無始無終 also without beginning or end, but about the ‘end’ there is difference of interpretation.