C C C:
Nick, you say "Our own ignorance at fault", but if the separate self is illusion (and capable of nothing of any significance), then it must be the universe that created this mass human ignorance.
Of course it was the universe that created this 'mass human ignorance'!!!! Why do you even explicitly state so unless you think otherwise? What else would create the ignorance? You? Who's that?
C C C:
I didn't create my ignorance any more than I created my own birth.
What 'I'? Why did you not create your ignorance? Was it not the universe that created ignorance? And if the universe created the ignorance, doesn't that mean you created it? If you believe otherwise, then you believe in the separate self illusion.
C C C:
Why did the universe create mass ignorance (and hence suffering) - for fun?
Why not? The universe doesn't care! It's not a Self, neither are you, and you're not separate from the universe - you and the universe are the same. And since the universe doesn't suffer and you're not separate from the universe, you don't suffer either, except that you do, so the universe suffers too.
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C C C:
I've only one tiny little understanding of the world, and that is that good things seem to happen when you feel good, and bad things tend to happen when you feel bad.
Are you confusing cause and effect? Does good things seem to happen when you feel good, or do you feel good when good things happen?