Ask HN: How to Call the Opposite of Enlightenment? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How to Call the Opposite of Enlightenment?

How to call the opposite of enlightenment?

If you just want an antonym for the word, I would suggest that "ignorance" is the closest equivalent, in nearly all of the senses of the word. If this is about enlightenment, as in the Buddhist concept, then "unawareness" or even "unconsciousness" might be a bit closer. To be enlightened (bodhi) in Sanskrit/Pali is to be awoken ("woke"? heh); it is related to the verb for "to wake up".

Thank you, that helped me!

Illusion, māyā: literally, ‘that which does not exist’. In spiritual culture, real existence has 3 main properties: sat (eternality, timelessness); chit (unconditioned consciousness, life); ānanda (bliss, causeless happiness). Enlightenment is personal realization of saccidānanda; the opposite is māyā.

Thank you a lot for your reply. What sources do you recommend to read more?

Enlightenment has multiple meanings. To get the right antonym you need to be more precise.

The opposite of "the Enlightenment" is counter-enlightenment, encompassing romanticism, relativism, anti-rationalism, and vitalism. Also anti-enlightenment movement (associated with Friederich Nietzsche).

I intentionally did not disambiguate to see the resulting variance and you totally lived up to it with your options for "the Enlightenment". Thank you for that :)

Worldly, Temporal. As in preoccupied with that directly in front of them and missihg the big picture.

Postmodern times

What's the other side of a circle?

Inside and outside, maybe? :) Or did you mean: where is the start/end of it? And if I don't get it: what do I miss? Which dimension am I ignorant of?

Ignorance

Thank you - that is most likely what I want to go with in most cases :)

naïveté

Declension

Decadence

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