In his wonderful book, “The Four Noble Truths”, Geshe Tashi Tsering talks quite a bit about “innate” ignorance, which he also calls “natural” ignorance. In contrast to this innate ignorance there is also “acquired” ignorance.

In East Asian one finds something similar, but perhaps a little better formulated. This is the concept of “entrenched” ignorance (住地無明). This suggests a very helpful way of looking at the more basic, and more difficult to remove, kinds of ignorance. The Chinese word 住地 means “dwelling place”, “residence”, “a place where someone lives”. So 住地無明 refers to the kind of ignorance that has made itself feel “at home” in our minds.

This brings to mind a famous teaching about meditation: “In zazen, leave your front door and your back door open. Let thoughts come and go. Just don’t serve them tea.” When you offer tea to a guest, this will make them feel “at home”. It is an invitation to stay.

Linkage:
Three kinds of ignorance (Rigpa Wiki):
https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Three_kinds_of_ignorance
Four Noble Truths, by Geshe Tashi Tsering:
https://wisdomexperience.org/product/four-noble-truths/
Digital Dictionary of Buddhism entries:
住地 (entrenched): http://buddhism-dict.net/cgi-bin/xpr-ddb.pl?q=住地
住地無明 (entrenched ignorance): http://buddhism-dict.net/cgi-bin/xpr-ddb.pl?q=住地無明
住地煩惱 (entrenched afflictions): http://buddhism-dict.net/cgi-bin/xpr-ddb.pl?q=住地煩惱
Wonhyo’s Interpretation of the Hindrances by Charles Muller
http://www.acmuller.net/kor-bud/wonconf.html
Wonhyo’s Docrtine of the Two Hindrances:
http://www.acmuller.net/kor-bud/AAR1998paper.html