Someone quoted a passage from the Sutta Piṭaka stating that ignorance is the leader that brings unwholesome states to fullness, while true knowledge is the leader that brings wholesome states to fullness, then asked how one can know whether they are currently governed by knowledge or by ignorance.

How Can We Know Whether We Are Governed by Knowledge or Ignorance

We can only know this while abiding in the wholesome system — otherwise, we simply don't know at all. When the neutral or unwholesome nature dominates the mind, we don't realize we are under its influence. Someone who is angry, for instance, usually doesn't recognize their own anger, because ignorance lies behind it. We come to realize our own not-knowing only at the moment wholesome qualities manage to take hold of the mind, at which point awareness arises instantly — like a flickering light in the darkness: whenever wholesomeness seizes a moment, it briefly illuminates the way, letting us glimpse the path. But once unwholesomeness dominates again, it covers over that knowledge once more.

When a wholesome mind manages to take hold, mindfulness — a mental factor that arises together with a wholesome mind — appears immediately, along with other wholesome qualities such as a sense of shame and moral dread of wrongdoing, non-greed, faith, and lightness of body and mind. Every time a wholesome mind arises, the stream of merit pours in to cleanse the obscuring elements, and once they become light enough, the knowledge that ought to be known reveals itself, together with a knower who guides us to act correctly.

When unwholesome states possess the mind, however, they bring in obscuring elements that darken the mind, giving rise to superstitious, unreasoning belief — quite unlike the reasoned belief of the wholesome side. Unwholesome forces employ mental formations to guide us through an inner voice, pressing and squeezing us into shamelessness and fearlessness of wrongdoing, producing in sequence: wrong view, wrong intention, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, and wrong concentration — all resulting from ignorance obscuring correct knowledge.

Why Do People Today Often Choose the Opposite of Goodness — Such as Choosing a Bad Partner

The teacher explains that every human being is controlled from behind by the three natures in every decision they make — choosing a partner, choosing what to watch or listen to, or choosing what to eat — there is always someone behind the choice. When unwholesome forces possess the mind, they guide us toward choices harmful to ourselves, such as raw, unsafe food or vaping, even though there's nothing genuinely enjoyable about it — yet we force ourselves through it until it becomes habit, because we are being controlled.

The word people commonly use for gratifying satisfaction is, in truth, borrowed from the language of hell — describing the feeling experienced when tormenting hell-beings with cruel satisfaction. Those with a large proportion of unwholesome nature in their minds are often driven to choose whatever gives them that same gratifying feeling, even knowing it isn't right — such as choosing a partner who satisfies that urge rather than someone genuinely good. Speech and actions alike are steered toward drawing in demerit to fuel the unwholesome system, continually pushing one's own inner elements lower and lower. Even when a person feels troubled at having to do something they know isn't right, they still force themselves to do it — because they are being controlled without realizing it, as if enslaved to that nature.