“After what fashion is one to picture to oneself the passing over of Kamma from one existence to another?” To us in the West who have been reared in the mechanistic views of science and admit of the inductive method alone in argument, this seems the point most obscure among all the obscurities we find in the Buddha-thought. In the Buddha’s days, however, this point seems to have been so completely free from anything savouring of the problematical that the Buddha himself would seem never to have found it necessary to express himself categorically upon it. If to-day one asks the Theras in Ceylon or Burma how one ought to think of this passing over, one receives the unfailing reply, “It is not the case that ‘something’ passes over.” Here one must fall back upon the works of the commentators for fuller information. In the _Milinda Pañha_ (the _Questions of King Milinda_), a work that in Ceylon is held in the highest esteem, there occurs the following passage:-- (The King says): “Bhante (Reverend Sir) Nagasena, does the connection (with the next existence) take place without anything passing over?” (The Monk Nagasena replies): “Yes, great King, the connection takes place without anything passing over.” “Give me an example of connection taking place without anything passing over!” “Suppose a man to light one lamp at another, does one light here pass over to the other?” “No, bhante.” “In just the same way the connection takes place without anything passing over.”[9] Hereupon the question arises:-- “This previous existence of which I am the immediate continuation--am I this itself or am I another?” A further passage in the same book, the _Milinda Pañha_, runs:-- “He who is born--is he the same or is he another?” “Neither the same, neither another.” “Give me an illustration!” “Suppose a man to light a lamp: would it burn the whole night through?” “Yes, it would burn the whole night through.” “Now, is the flame of the first watch the same with the flame of the middle watch?” “No, indeed!” “Or is the flame of the middle watch the same with the flame of the last watch?” “No, indeed!” “Then is the lamp of the first watch one, the lamp of the middle watch another, and the lamp of the last watch yet another?” “No, indeed! In dependence upon one and the same (lamp) the light burns all the night through.” “Even so does the continuity of men and things come about. One arises, another passes away. On the instant, as it were, without before or after, the linking up is effected. Thus it is not oneself, nor yet is it another, that passes on (and constitutes) each last present phase of consciousness.” With this we arrive at the crucial point. _The passing over ensues on the instant, immediately, not in space and time._ Buddhism, if it is to satisfy the thinker, here will have to come to an understanding with modern physics. In a succeeding essay this will be attempted. For the present, as preliminary, we hold fast only to the fact.