Wisdom and Ignorance Never Combine
Six similes in a row — form and non-form, a mark and its absence, a world's arising and its decay, a bodhisattva's first mind and their later mind, the separate bodies of consciousness — all making the same point: wisdom does not slowly overcome ignorance, because the two never occupy the same place at all.
Conscience Grove Bodhisattva's Hymn
爾時，慚愧林菩薩承佛威力，普觀十方而說頌言：
At that time, relying upon the Buddha's own awesome power, Conscience Grove Bodhisattva universally surveyed the ten directions and then spoke a verse, saying:
「若人得聞是，希有自在法，
能生歡喜心，疾除疑惑網。
一切知見人，自說如是言，
如來無不知，是故難思議。
無有從無智，而生於智慧，
世間常暗冥，是故無能生。
如色及非色，此二不為一，
智無智亦然，其體各殊異。
如相與無相，生死及涅槃，
分別各不同，智無智如是。
世界始成立，無有敗壞相，
智無智亦然，二相非一時。
如菩薩初心，不與後心俱，
智無智亦然，二心不同時。
譬如諸識身，各各無和合，
智無智如是，究竟無和合。
如阿伽陀藥，能滅一切毒，
有智亦如是，能滅於無智。
如來無有上，亦無與等者，
一切無能比，是故難值遇。」
"If a person attains the hearing of this rare and sovereign Dharma, they are able to give rise to a joyful mind, and swiftly remove the net of doubt and confusion. The one of all-knowing sight himself speaks these very words: there is nothing at all the Tathāgata fails to know, and for this reason he is inconceivable.
There is no wisdom that is ever born from ignorance; the world is forever dark and clouded, and for this reason nothing at all can be born from it. Just as form and non-form, these two are never one and the same, so too are wisdom and ignorance — their own substance is each entirely distinct.
Just as a mark and the absence of a mark, or birth-and-death and nirvāṇa, are each discriminated as entirely different, so too are wisdom and ignorance. Just as a world when it first comes into being has no sign of decay or destruction within it, so too are wisdom and ignorance — the two signs never occur at the same time.
Just as a bodhisattva's very first mind never accompanies a later mind, so too are wisdom and ignorance — the two minds never occur at the same time. Just as the various bodies of consciousness never combine or mix with one another, so too are wisdom and ignorance — in the end, they never combine at all.
Just as the medicine agada is able to extinguish every poison, so too does wisdom, once present, extinguish ignorance in just the same way. The Tathāgata has nothing above him, and nothing at all that equals him; nothing at all can compare with him, and for this reason he is difficult indeed to encounter."
This hymn's argument is philosophically precise in a way worth noticing: it never claims wisdom gradually replaces ignorance, the way light might slowly fill a darkening room. Instead, each simile insists the two are categorically incompatible — like a mark and its absence, they cannot coexist even briefly. The medicine agada, a recurring figure in Buddhist literature for something whose potency is immediate and total, closes the point: wisdom does not weaken ignorance, it extinguishes it outright.
Part 123 Complete
This closes Part 123. Chapter 20 continues in Part 124 with Diligence Grove Bodhisattva's hymn.