Confusion cannot exist without the reinforcement of further confusion. So there is constant reinforcement of confusion, chain reactions being set up constantly. If you have a chain reaction, that automatically means that you don’t have one long process, but you have the explosion of split atoms being set off. This sends a message that a group is made up of independent things. Confusion is like that. It is made up of individual moments of confusion rather than being one continuous existence that goes on for a long period of time. Because of the fickle quality of confusion, which creates its momentum, it is not one big, solid continuous thing like a pipe, but it is like a string of beads. Because each moment has its own existence, each has to maintain itself. Therefore, one situation is looking for the next situation. There are automatically gaps there, in which something other than confusion is functioning.
From The Future Is Open: Good Karma, Bad Karma, and Beyond Karma, page 6.
Visit the Chogyam Trungpa Digital Library to stream more than 400 audio and video recordings.