Avidyā is used in both Hinduism and Buddhism to indicate our conditioned minds, unable to distinguish the relativistic, phenomenal world of form from our Immortal Ground of Being, to differentiate transient māyā from intransient Reality. Ignorance of the Truth thus prevents us from using our Divine Intelligence to understand what it truly means to be a human being.

There is no equivalent word in European languages because these reflect cultures that are ignorant that they are living in ignorance, unaware that we are never separate from the Divine for a single instant in our lives.