The Buddha taught that everything is interdependent and in process–-subject to Karma and conditioning. He called this conditioned existence “ saṃsāra ,” a Sanskrit word that means “perpetual wandering” or the “wheel of suffering.” 

Saṃsāra is the beginningless and endless cycle of repeated birth, existence and dying again.  Saṃsāra is considered to be dukkha, unsatisfactory and painful, perpetuated by desire and ignorance, and the resulting karma. Thanissaro Bhikkhu gives us this explanation of saṃsāra:  

” Saṃsāra is a process: the tendency to keep creating worlds and then moving into them. And note that this creating and moving in doesn’t just happen once, at birth. We’re doing it all the time.”

We create our reality and we create ourselves. The Buddha taught that what we think of as our permanent self, our ego, our identity, is just an illusion. Moment to moment, we create ourselves anew. What appears to be permanent is truly only temporary. Everything changes continually… especially our body, our mind our identity. Our attachment to a permanent self and a permanent reality thus create our suffering and our perpetual wandering.