CHANGING TIDES AND TIMES
~ 23
Rather, the confusion in the mind comes to an end. Instead of eternally experiencing its own confusion, enlightened mind eternally experiences its own true nature as tathagatagarbha, wholly and without any confusion. In fact, the only reason we can say that samsara is a temporary state that can be ended, is that it is possible to eliminate this primal confusion. Quite literally, samsara is the experiencing of that confusion and, if this confusion is eliminated, then samsara has been eliminated. If, however, that confusion is not eliminated, then samsara remains an endless process. Consequently, it will never exhaust itself. The whole karmic process has been briefly summed up in a quote from the traditional teachings: "If you wish to understand what has taken place, look at your body; if you wish to see what will take place, look at your actions." This saying is an attempt to indicate that any particular state of rebirth and/ or the experiences that currently affect one are due to tendencies that were established at some previous time. Additionally, what the mind will experience in the future is currently being conditioned by how it is expressing itself now in physical, verbal, and mental action. Past, present, or future karmic tendencies are a continuing cycle that, once established, are continually reinforced. At this time, we all have the common quality of being human, as we share this collective experience of a human rebirth. This is an indication that we share a certain collective karma which has brought us to this particular nature of our experience, instead of to some other form of life experience in some other realm, or to some other human circumstances that proscribe interest in the Dharma. Due to our positive and meritorious physical, verbal, and mental actions, certain meritorious tendencies were reinforced in previous existences that have given us this current result. Such collective experience is easily demonstrable; however, there is another fact that we have to consider. The great variety of ways that human beings experience the human realm is due not to collective karma but to the individual aspects of karma. For example, in the human realm there are people who die very early, who experience continual poverty, who suffer from the inability to become prosperous, who fail to accomplish their aims,