The realization of enlightenment cannot be attained on one’s own. For one is not a substantial, i.e., ontologically independent, being to begin with. As the cosmos itself is a web of interdependently originating thing-events, nothing can stand alone to claim complete self-sufficiency. The same interdependency that obtains horizontally between the constituents of the cosmos also obtains vertically. That is, the whole is what it is in virtue of its parts just as the parts are what they are in part