This is what the Buddha realized in Bodhgaya in the morning of the Vaiśākh full moon. This is a major tenet of Buddhism and distinguishes it from all other religious systems. It is called Pratītyasamutpāda (प्रतीत्यसमुत्पाद) in Sanskrit and paṭiccasamuppāda (पटीच्चसमुप्पाद) in Pali. It is translated into English as interdependent co-origination/interdependent co-arising or shortened to dependent-origination. It is very simple, but by virtue of its simplicity, it seems very complex to our complex-conditioned minds. It simply means all things material or abstract appears to arise when the cause and conditions(Skt: hetu-pratyaya) are there and these causes and conditions themselves arise from other causes and conditions before them and they likewise to beginningless time and continue to endless time. Whatever appears, appears when the appropriate causes and conditions are present.
This samsara is a beginningless everchanging flux of the flow of causes and conditions called hetu-phala pravāha in Sanskrit. From the smallest unit of matter or time to the trichiliocosm (sk: trisahasra mahāsahasra lokadhātu), a concept found in the cosmology of Mahāyāna and Theravāda Buddhism in which the universe is said to be comprised of three thousand clusters of world-systems each of which consists of a thousand worlds, all arise (or more correctly appear to arise) through causes and conditions (hetu-pratyaya). This is applicable to concepts and abstract objects too.
A particular house is merely a collection of causes and conditions like bricks, mud, design, wood, glasses, cement, tins, tiles, etc., and the getting together of carpenters and masons et al and engineers etc. But each of them arises due to their former causes and conditions etc. If there were no bricks or mud (causes etc ) or masons etc, the house would not arise/appear. But the brick is not the house, the tins or the mud or the cement or the wood, glasses etc. are not the house, and if you take them all out one by one there is no house either. So, the interdependently arisen house is empty of real existence (skt: niḥsvabhāva). Niḥsvabhāvatā or the non-real existence-ness is what is called emptiness (skt. śūnyatā) in Buddhism.
Where you are sitting is called “here” by you, but that very same place I would call a “there” because your “hereness” is dependent on your being in that place and my “thereness” of the same place depends on my being not in that place (dependent origination). Therefore, that place is neither here nor there REALLY. In other words, the hereness of the “here” or thereness of the “there” has no real existence(niḥsvabhāva) or emptiness (śūnyatā). Short and long, far and near, etc. are like that too. They are all relative, as Einstein would have said. To fully explain it and to explain all its implications would take too long, and anyway can never be understood from writings alone but must be learned step by step from an authentic Master.
The Buddhist enlightenment is about realizing non conceptually the emptiness or interdependent origination, and not just conceptually understanding this. Thus, it requires an authentic Master to guide you on the path(mārga) towards that realization. Why this is necessary? For correct enlightenment that releases you from suffering, emotional defilement, and karma cannot be easily gleaned just from a writing. Without that direct realization, you cannot become free from grasping and nescience and the control of your karma. As Nāgārjuna, the great Brahmin Buddhist Master from the 1st century wrote in his magnum opus, the Madhyamakaśāstra (well known as Mūlamadhyamakakārika):
karmakleśakṣayān mokṣaḥ karmakleśā vikalpataḥ |
te prapañcāt prapañcas tu śūnyatāyāṃ nirudhyate || 18.5 ||
When karma and emotional defilement (kleśa) are dissipated, there is liberation/enlightenment. Those karma and emotional defilement arise from conceptual thinking (vikalpa) and that arises from conceptual proliferation/Impressions of conceptual thinking (prapañca) and this prapañca ceases in emptiness.
So according to Buddhism (especially Mahāyāna Buddhism), only the direct non-conceptual (avikalpa) realization of emptiness is called enlightenment and not just believing yourself to be free or just being present in the moment or being in awareness which are just factors of enlightenment but not in themselves alone enlightenment per se.
All of these can be done by oneself alone but the correct enlightenment is not just these things and cannot be achieved alone by a person himself with a bag full of karma and emotional defilement (kleśa) and strongly rooted nescience (avidyā) of which the person is not even aware. Beginningless nescience (avidyā) is not removed by another thought thinking itself already free or just being aware of or being present in the moment. Just as a hand that has messed with shit is not going to stop smelling simply by saying/thinking/believing that my hand doesn’t smell or being aware of your hands or whatever. Although, all of these are integral parts of the path.
People are free to believe whatever they want as being awakened or enlightened, but that is not what the Buddha meant by enlightened, nor the enlightened lineages (of literally thousands and thousands of enlightened Buddhist Masters coming down through the centuries in an unbroken enlightened lineage from the Buddha himself generation by generation to the present day), consider such experiences to be enlightenment. The correct Buddhist path of the enlightened lineages has produced enlightened being galore through the centuries generation by generation and that is what is meant by the Dharma in Buddhism. It is a proven highway, a proven path unlike new-fangled ideas of people here and there whose ideas of awakening or enlightenment will vanish in a generation or two because they fail to deliver. This kind of thing has been happening, especially in the Indian subcontinent for centuries.
It is good to understand that while an enlightened person is present in the present moment, you can be present in the present moment and not be enlightened, while an enlightened being is aware you can be aware and not be enlightened, etc. And it is good to know that the Buddha said there are wrong views (mithyā dṛṣṭi), that there are wrong samadhi-s (mithyā samādhi) and the very word Samyaksaṃbuddha means completely, totally and correctly enlightened, which means, there are possibilities of being wrongly enlightened i.e., there are states that can be mistaken for enlightenment. Since one cannot be enlightened without freeing the mind from the bondage of emotional defilements and nescience, and since these things are not like the simple darkness of a cave that can be dispelled by lighting a lighter in an instant (a case of a totally wrong metaphor), but are more like the shit in your hand which requires washing properly with soap et al, there can be no such thing as spontaneous enlightenment or instantaneous enlightenment unless the person has worked for it and that too with the correct path(samyak mārga) according to the Buddha and his teachings. People are however free to imagine various states of the mind as enlightenment. But just don’t confuse that with what the Buddha meant by enlightenment. At least, a person who claims to have awakened must have that much clarity. Awakened to the reality of interdependent origination or emptiness and all they imply.
