Chapters 5 and 6 have dealt with ‘conventional’ matters of personality and rebirth, and with the form of self-perception and the attitude to action in Buddhism, which result from this Weltanschauung. In this chapter, and the next, I will turn to the Theravāda's ‘ultimate’ account of continuity (in any form, whether within one life or across ‘lifetimes’ in rebirth). My discussion of this account will have two main levels. On one hand, I will simply present the facts of Theravāda's thought on the matter, and show the ways in which it has manipulated the lists of impersonal element-categories in which alone ultimate doctrine consists, in order to provide an answer to the problem. On the other hand, along with this presentation of Theravāda thinking, I shall be concerned to relate it to its cultural and social context; that is, to its Brahmanical cultural heritage and to its continuing place in the peasant society of South Asia.