As to the question how the avijja (ignorance) first started there can be no answer, for we could never say that either ignorance or desire for existence ever has any beginning [Footnote ref 148]. Its fruition is seen in the cycle of existence and the sorrow that comes in its train, and it comes and goes with them all. Thus as we can never say that it has any beginning, it determines the elements which bring about cycles of existence and is itself determined by certain others. This mutual determination can only take place in and through the changing series of dependent phenomena, for there is nothing which can be said to have any absolute priority in time or stability. It is said that it is through the coming into being of the asavas or depravities that the avijja came into being, and that through the destruction of the depravities (_asava_) the avijja was destroyed [Footnote ref 149]. These asavas are classified in the _Dhammasa@nga@ni_ as kamasava, bhavasava, di@t@thasava and avijjasava. Kamasava means desire, attachment, pleasure, and thirst after the qualities associated with the senses; bhavasava means desire, attachment and will for existence or birth; di@t@thasava means the holding of heretical views, such as, the world is eternal or non-eternal, or that the world will come to an end or will not come to an end, or that the body and the soul are one or are different; avijjasava means the ignorance of sorrow, its cause, its extinction and its means of extinction. _Dhammasa@nga@ni_ adds four more supplementary ones, viz. ignorance about the nature of anterior mental khandhas, posterior mental khandhas, anterior and posterior together, and their mutual dependence [Footnote ref 150]. Kamasava and bhavasava can as Buddhagho@sa says be counted as one, for they are both but depravities due to attachment [Footnote ref 151].
The di@t@thasavas by clouding the mind with false metaphysical views stand in the way of one's adopting the true Buddhistic doctrines. The kamasavas stand in the way of one's entering into the way of Nirva@na (_anagamimagga_) and the bhavasavas and avijjasavas stand in the way of one's attaining arha or final emancipation. When the _Majjhima Nikaya_ says that from the rise of the asavas avijja rises, it evidently counts avijja there as in some sense separate from the other asavas, such as those of attachment and desire of existence which veil the true knowledge about sorrow.
The afflictions (_kilesas_) do not differ much from the asavas for they are but the specific passions in forms ordinarily familiar to us, such as covetousness (_lobha_), anger or hatred (_dosa_), infatuation (_moha_), arrogance, pride or vanity (_mana_), heresy (_di@t@thi_), doubt or uncertainty (_vicikiccha_), idleness (_thina_), boastfulness (_udhacca_), shamelessness (_ahirika_) and hardness of heart _anottapa_); these kilesas proceed directly as a result of the asavas. In spite of these varieties they are often counted as three (lobha, dosa, moha) and these together are called kilesa. They are associated with the vedanakkhandha, sannakkhandha, sa@nkharakkhandha and vinnanakkhandha. From these arise the three kinds of actions, of speech, of body, and of mind [Footnote ref 152].