Let us consider the nature of Śākyamuni’s attainment of the Way, also called Awakening or Enlightenment. All scriptures say that he accomplished this while in a state of meditative concentration. Assuming this description is accurate, one wonders what is different between the states achieved by the meditation practices in which he had previously engaged and the state he reached in his enlightenment. One possible answer lies in the different motivations between the two.

When Śākyamuni was a prince, he was distressed regarding life. To overcome those doubts and despair about life that everyone has as a young adult, people attempt to adapt themselves to society and avoid their doubts while making excuses to themselves. Śākyamuni confronted this problem head-on. His resolve to solve the fundamental problem of suffering led him to a state that was not obtained by those who practiced before him. This state allowed him to grasp the dharma of dependent arising.

Dependent arising refers to an insight about relationships. It is related to time and existence in this world. It describes all phenomena as interdependent and not existing in and of themselves. Every effect always arises with some sort of cause as its condition. A typical way that Śākyamuni expressed this was, “This is because that is, this arises because that arises, this extinguishes because that extinguishes.”