Is individual liberation possible?

During one of my talks on Anatta during a regular Buddhist meeting two weeks ago, I questioned the possibility of individual liberation, which is a shared belief in all schools of Buddhism. Take Buddha’s life story, for example. It is said that Buddha spent some six years learning from various gurus, practicing meditation and asceticism before he became enlightened. At that point, Buddha finally found a way to end suffering and he began his teaching career, helping others end suffering too.

This is my basic question — can there be individual liberation, regardless of the state of the world and regardless of how are other people doing? I will answer this question from a variety of perspectives. First, from the perspective of Buddhist philosophy, my position that there is no individual liberation. This is due to one of the Three Marks of Existence. The teaching of Anatta is one of the three marks. It is often expressed as “All phenomena are without self.” This means that they have no independent existence. It also follows from the central tenet of Buddhism, which is Pratītyasamutpāda (Dependent Origination). If all things depend on each other in order to arise, then there cannot be any independent existence. It is for this reason that Pratītyasamutpāda and Anatta are equivalent expressions of the same truth. During the last Buddhist meeting, some of my Buddhist friends believe that I…