The theory of nescience or ignorance (_avidyâ_) is an attempt by Buddhists to solve the relation between the one and the many, between absolute Suchness and conditional Suchness, between Dharmakâya and Sarvasattva, between wisdom (_bodhi_) and sin (_kleça_), between Nirvâna and Samsâra. But Buddhism does not give us any systematic exposition of the doctrine. What it says is categorical and dogmatic. “This universe is really the Dharmadhâtu;[56] it is characterised by sameness (_samatâ_); there is no differentiation (_visama_) in it; it is even emptiness itself (_çûnyatâ_); all things have no _pudgala_ (self). But, because of nescience, there are four or six _mahâbhûta_ (elements), five _skandha_ (aggregates), six (or eight) _vijñâna_ (senses), and twelve _nidâna_ (chains of causation). All these names and forms (_nâmarûpa_) are of nescience or ignorance.” Or, according to Açvaghoṣa, “The Heart of Suchness is the vast All of one Dharmadhâtu; it is the essence of all doctrines. The ultimate nature does not perish, nor does it {116} decay. All particular objects exist because of confused subjectivity (_smṛti_).[57] Independent of confused subjectivity, there is no outside world to be perceived and discriminated.” “Everything that is subject to the law of birth and death exists only because of ignorance and karma.” Such statements as these are found almost everywhere in the Buddhist literature; but as to the question how and why this negative principle of ignorance came to assert itself in the body of Suchness, we are at a loss where to find an authoritative and definite answer to it. One thing, however, is certain, which is this: Ignorance (_avidyâ_) is principium individium, that creates the multitudinousness of phenomena in the absolute oneness of being, that tosses up the roaring billows of existence in the eternal ocean of Suchness, that breaks the silence of Nirvâna and starts the wheel of metempsychosis perpetually rolling, that, veiling the transpicuous mirror of Bodhi, affects the reflection of Suchness therein, that transforms the sameness (_samatâ_) of Suchness to the duality of thisness and thatness and leads many confused minds to egoism with all its pernicious corollaries. Perhaps, the best way to attack the problem of ignorance is to understand that Buddhism is a thoroughly idealistic doctrine as every true religion should be, and that psychologically, and not ontologically, {117} should Suchness be conceived, and further, that nescience is inherent in Suchness, though only hypothetically, illusively, apparently, and not really in any sense.