In Buddhism this idea is expressed as causality. That is, everything depends upon specific causes and conditions. We see a chair because of light. Sadness occurs because of a loss. A flower grows because of the sun, earth and water. Moreover, that cause does not exist on its own. Our experience is always the result of duality: cause and effect, contrast and distinction.

The corollary to interdependence is impermanence. All things change. Nothing is permanent. Everything is in a constant state of movement. We watch things grow and die in nature every day. Even seemingly immutable things like iron eventually break down. Western science has revealed through quantum physics that the smallest molecules of matter are in constant motion, and can even change their nature from particle to wave, depending on circumstances.

To make sense of this changing world around us, our mind assembles a structure of concepts; we label and explain everything. We make distinctions, see separations, and experience a world apart from ourselves. We forget that each concept, each thought arises as a result of a set of conditions. And our experience of those conditions may differ from other people’s experience of them, based on the filter we use for interpreting those conditions—the emotional, physical and psychological background we bring to the situation.

That is the heart of dependent origination: Our experience of reality is dependent on other factors just as everything around us depends on other factors to come into being. And it is all happening in a state of constant movement and change. Ultimately, dependent origination describes the progression that fuels this endless cycle of re-birth.

Understanding this process allows a practitioner to start letting go, to experience reality as a fluid interdependent whole. We are able to see our thoughts and emotions as momentary, not representative of a solid truth or hard reality. This is a key understanding in order to be able to see the absolute realities of selflessness and emptiness.

Karma, at its most basic, is our action and the result of that action. The choices we make with our body, speech and mind affect us and others. Sometimes the results are immediately obvious, but mostly they are not and we are often unaware of them. Under the right conditions, a butterfly flapping its wings in the Pacific can cause a hurricane in the Atlantic. Equally, our actions have consequences far beyond our imagining—consequences both for ourselves and others.

Karma is a universal law, a truth of existence. Buddhism places specific emphasis on karma because every action, conscious or unconscious, leaves an imprint on the mind, a sort of forward momentum that influences all successive life events.

Being aware of the law of karma helps reinforce our practice. The teachings and their guidelines support each of us in creating the right conditions for enlightenment. And along the way, the teachings help modify our actions (karma) to promote happiness for ourselves and others.

What we experience as the self is actually just input from our senses as filtered by feeling, recognition and thought. The central organizer of all of this activity is our consciousness.

These five factors, known as the Five Aggregates, combine in a continuous mental ballet to create a sense of continuity—a story and our place in it—that feels like a solid thing in relation to the rest of the world.

Metaphors are often helpful in Buddhist explanations. The mental process that we think of as our reality is like a torch being twirled around so quickly that the light looks like a solid ring of fire. In fact, the circle of fire only has the appearance of solidity.

In the same way, our apparent reality is made up of individual moments, but they move so fast that they seem to make a continuous, solid reality and self. There is, however, never any actual continuity; there is no single entity that passes from moment to moment. This is selflessness.

Emptiness is the true reality. To realize it, we must first understand the nature of the mind—clear, luminous and free from fear or hope. As we move beyond the mental construct we call self, and understand with absolute clarity the mind without mental filters. We experience both selflessness and the impermanence of all things.

The result is a transformational relationship with the world—a transformation that benefits all living things.