Through the twelve links of dependent origination, Buddha teaches that all things and all events, including all elements of one's individual experience, come into being merely as a result of the aggregation of causes and conditions. Understanding this, in turn, can lead us to see that all things are by nature interdependent, originating entirely as a result of other things and other factors.
Buddha teaches that the very fact that something is dependently originated means that it is necessarily devoid of an essential, or independent, reality. For if something is fundamentally dependent, by logical necessity it must be devoid of having a nature that is independent of other phenomena, of existing independently. Thus it is said that anything that is dependently originated must also be, in actual fact, empty.
One might wonder why this is so important; why does it matter that all phenomena are empty of any independent existence? It maters, Buddha teaches, because one who clearly understands the true nature of this emptiness will be liberated, released completely from all suffering. So how then do we go about understanding it? In the twelve links of dependent origination, it is said that the root of unenlightened existence lies in the first link, our basic ignorance of this empty nature of reality.
---His Holiness the Dalai Lama---
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