Dependence on others means surrender of one's effort.
Buddhism is the religion of humanism where equality, justice and peace reign supreme. To depend on others for salvation is negative, but to depend on oneself is positive. Dependence on others means surrender of one's effort.
Everything which has improved and uplifted humanity has been done by man himself. Man's improvement must come from his own effort but not from heaven. Man should not be a slave even to the great forces of nature because even though he is crushed by them he remains superior by virtue of his understanding of them. Again Buddhism carries the truth further: it shows that by means of understanding, man can also control his circumstances. He can cease to be crushed by them and use their power to raise himself.
Buddhists always give their due credit to man's intelligence and effort for his achievement but not to supernatural beings. The true religion means faith in good rather than faith in unknown forces. In that respect, Buddhism is not merely a religion, but a true way of life, a way of good living. From the very outset, Buddhism appealed to the cultured and the intellectuals. Every cultured man in the world today respects the Buddha as a rational teacher. The Buddha taught that what man needs for his happiness is not a religion with a mass of theories but knowledge, knowledge of the cosmic nature and its complete subjugation to the law of cause and effect. Until this principle is fully understood, life is only an imperfect manifestation of its very own nature.
The Buddha has given a new explanation of the universe. A new vision of eternal happiness, the achievement of perfection in Buddha knowledge, the winning of the human goal, the permanent state beyond impermanency, the attainment of Nibbana beyond all the worlds of change and the final deliverance from the miseries of existence.
Taken from "What Buddhists Believe"
Written by Ven. K. Sri Dhammananda
Published by Buddhist Missionary Society