I think of myself as a pretty independent person. Buddhism seems to say that not true. Why?

Many people, many of us believe that “I” or self is something very independent, as not being dependent on anything. 

In reality, everything is dependent. 

Like our clothes, our livelihood, even our body, from our brain to our feet, there is nothing that is not dependent upon many other things outside of us. Food, clothing, even the breaths we take are dependent upon things outside of us.

HH, 17^th Karmapa
Ogyen Trinley Dorje

From Kamashila
Short-Ngon-dro teaching
Germany, 2014