Not anything has ever actually been created.

Not anything actually exists.

If we want to prove that something exists, we are confronted with the problem of dependent arising: not anything can stand on its own as existent. All things depend on some other things for their (so-called) arising.

The phenomenon of dependent arising itself depends upon someone to observe the phenomenon and declare that it exists. The person who makes that declaration has depended upon dependent arising for his own arising and existence.

Something is not freely capable of existing on its own, when it depends upon some other thing for its existence. And the other thing upon which it depends is likewise not free-standing, because it is dependent upon something else for its existence.

Since all things are interdependently existent, not any thing is real in terms of being able to stand alone as self-existent. This tells us that not any thing can ever have been originated, from the very beginning.

Even dependent arising does not exist as a reality. Obviously, if not anything has ever been created, there are not things available to be dependent upon each other.

But for the person whose assumption it is that anything exists, the appearance that we designate dependent arising can demonstrate that not any thing does actually exists independently, on its own.

And when not anything can be shown to be independently existent, one must conclude that not anything has ever actually been created.

What does seem to “exist” are appearances. These “real” appearances appear to a person who is himself dependently-arisen, and therefore not real. Can any thing an unreal person perceive be actually real?

Apart from the Dream itself, in which the dreamer himself is appearing, not anything is ever actually happening. Space does not exist, time does not exist, cause and effect do not exist, nor are there any phenomenon. Not any of these things exists, apart from the Dream itself—which does not actually exist, in reality.