In the Vedanta, “Ignorance” is a given thing in itself, an incomprehensible; it is the point on which, for the genuine thinker, the whole system comes to grief. In Buddhism Ignorance is not anything that is given in itself. Its presence in everything that lives has no other basis than that all that lives, by the mere fact of its existence shows that it must have been compounded with Ignorance, since otherwise the _I_-process concerned would have been bound to have collapsed, just in the same way that everything that has being, by its very existence shows that up to now it must have been fertile, capable of propagation, since otherwise it could not be here. As little as on that account “fertility” is a given in itself, just as little is Ignorance a given in itself. When the Buddha in the formula of causality places “Ignorance” at the head of his world-system, makes it the antecedent condition of all individual existence, he does nothing but formulate _abstractly_ what in the Kamma-teaching he gives _actually_--the beginninglessness of the _I_-process. To the question, “What is the adequate cause of living beings? How is it ever possible for the _I_ to come about?” he gives in the Kamma-teaching, the answer, “through willing,” and in the Causal Chain the answer, “through ignorance as to one’s self.” Both answers bear the one import,--this, namely, that anterior to the present _I_ ever and again stands the _I_, running backward in a series that knows no beginning, and never has known a beginning. Whether I say, “A being is here in virtue of his volitional activities, of his Kamma,” or, “He is here in virtue of his Ignorance,” there exists no other distinction between these two expressions than between the two phrases: “light is present,” and, “shadow is present.” Shadow in itself means nothing save only that light is present. Shadow is light itself, but in empty abstract form. In the selfsame way Ignorance of itself means nothing save only that will is present. Ignorance is will itself, but in empty abstract form. In the intuition of the beginninglessness of the individual, both series--the actual as the Kamma-teaching, and the abstract as the teaching concerning ignorance--merge into one. Buddhism is the teaching of actuality. The actual is only what I myself experience--I, the _I_-process. The Buddha teaches me to comprehend myself, and only as a function of this self-comprehension does there follow a comprehension of the external world. A view of the world based solely upon a comprehension of one’s self perforce lies beyond reach of any inductive procedure; the question, therefore, arises:-- By what means and method is such a doctrine to be brought within reach of others? VI BUDDHISM AS A WORKING HYPOTHESIS Each with its own world-conception, faith and science alike, are representatives of a knowledge.