Buddhism assumes no substance, no abiding individual self, no soul, no Creator, no root principle of the universe. But this by no means implies that all beings and things do not exist. They do not exist with a substratum or a permanent essence in them, as people often think, but they do exist as causal relatives or combinations. All becoming, either personal or universal, originate from the principle of causation, and exist in causal combinations. The center of causation is one’s own action, and the action will leave its latent energy which decides the ensuing existence. Accordingly, our past forms our present, and the present forms the future. This is the theory of self-creation.

We are, therefore, always creating and always changing. Men are ever floating on the waves of dynamic becoming called ‘samsara,’ the stream of life. Creating and changing ourselves as a whole, we go on. There should no fear of the loss of identity, for our present self as a whole is an effect of the cause which we may call our past self; similarity in the future it is impossible that our self will be lost since we are necessarily self-creating beings. It is unreasonable to seek an unchanging essence in an all-changing being.

The seed-elements are assumed to be four—Earth (hardness), Water (wetness), Fire (warmth) and Air (motion)—and all matters or forms are one or another combination of these four.

The formation of a personality and of the universe is similar, both consisting of matter and mind, the difference being that in a personality, mind is prevalent while in the universe matter is prevalent. Personality consists of five groups (skandha)–Form (body), Perception, Conception, Volition and Consciousness (mind). The Form or body, again, consists of earth, water, fire and air. Man is therefore to be considered as one who has a form, perceives, conceives, wills and thinks. These are his actions (karma) which altogether form his personal existence, which has no other reality. A man is a temporary entity, and is only living in the contiguity of momentariness. In order to change his personality for better, the cultivation of his knowledge and wisdom is necessary, because the perfection of wisdom is the perfection of personality—Enlightenment.