The Tree of Enlightenment

To arrive at the ultimate picture of reality, we need to couple
the analytical approach with the synthetic or relational approach.
at is why a great Buddhist scholar and saint, Nagarjuna, once
expressed his reverence for the Buddha as ‘the teacher of interdependent
origination.’ e truth of interdependent origination
pacifies and calms the agitation of thought-construction. is is
an indication of the importance of relation, interdependence, or
conditionality in understanding the real nature of things. It is
also why scholars have focused on the Book of Causal Relations,
which supplies the other half of the Abhidharmic method of
investigation.
Just as, through analysis, we arrive at the insubstantiality of
personality and phenomena (because we see that they are made
up of component parts), so, through the process of relational
investigation, we arrive at the emptiness of personality and phenomena
(because we see that the component parts which constitute
them are all conditioned by and relative to each other). We
arrive at this insubstantiality and emptiness by focusing on the
teaching of interdependent origination.
We can see how, within a given thing – be it the personality
or an external object – the component parts depend on one
another for their existence. For instance, within a single phenomenon,
such as an apparently unitary table, there are several
component parts (the legs, the top, and so forth) that depend
on each other for their existence as part of a table. Similarly, the
table depends on its antecedent causes (the wood, the iron, and
action of the craftsman who put it together) and also on proximate
conditions (like the floor on which it stands).
We can also explore the idea of interdependence in relation
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