What is "ignorance"?

I have been puzzled for quite some time about the meaning of this Buddhist term. This morning I received the following insight:

Ignorance is that state of being
in which one is not able or willing
to see all phenomena as they are,
and therefore create a substitute:
the Conditioned World (samsara).

"not able" refers to ignorance in the sense of not knowing.
"not willing" refers to ignoring all that we actually do know.

The Conditioned World is a collection of patches of two kinds:

• Regarding the passive "not able" ignorance, they fill up the gaps of our lacking knowledge with assumptions, beliefs, expectations, logic etc., leading for example to disagreement and disappointment.
• Regarding the active "not willing" ignorance, they cover up our consciously chosen nonvirtuous deeds with excuses, justifications, resolutions etc., leading for example to self-doubt and restlessness.

Seeing this, one may develop the motivation to gradually let go of actively ignoring virtuous deeds, and so, become passively more open to insights resulting from walking the Noble Eight-fold path.

Naively yours, Jerry