Access  to  the  transpersonal   comes  through  the
　　   abandonment  of all  relationship  to one's  karman,
　　   including the relationship of transcendence.

　　　　  When one has become  one's  karman, one has gone
　　   beyond  discriminating  consciousness.   One  exists
　　   one's karman in the simplicity of suchness. In terms
　　   of the koan, this point  can be made by saying  that
　　   instead  of seeing  the fact  that  the  old man was
　　   given a fox body as punishment for a wrong answer to
　　   the  question  concerning  the relationship  between
　　   karman  and enlightenment, one  should  simply  say,
　　   according  to Shibayama  Roshi, when a fox, be a fox
　　   completely;   when   an  old  man,  be  an  old  man
　　   completely.  It is most emphatically not a matter of
　　   reward  or punishment, right  and  wrong, truth  and
　　   falsity.　　 As   always   in   Zen,   the   ultimate
　　   consideration  is practical  and existential: how is
　　   one to live one's karman? The answer  is: unite with
　　   it  completely,  so  that  there  is  no  trace   of
　　   separation from it. This is freedom. Shibayama Roshi
　　   puts this beautifully as follows:

　　   When  a fox is really  a fox, and  not a thought  of
　　   discriminating  consciousness  moves  there,  he  is
　　   truly  'a former  head of a monastery.'  When an old
　　   man cannot  be an old man and goes  astray  with his
　　   dualistic thinking, he is a fox.  Master Dogen said,
　　   "Once  you  have  attained  satori, if you  were  to
　　   transmigrate  through  the six realms  and  the four
　　   modes of life, your transmigration  would be nothing
　　   but  the  work   of  your   compassionate   life  of
　　   satori.(23)

　　　　　　　　　　　　  P.85

　　   By implication, I think, the traditional association
　　   of karman  with  transmigration  and rebirth  is yet
　　   another example of that discriminating, objectifying
　　   consciousness  which  seeks  to  give  to karman  an
　　   external reality it does not have.  If the mind does
　　   not   wander,   there　　 is   in   effect　　 neither
　　   transmigration  nor rebirth.(24) Believing  in these
　　   notions betrays  the fact that one is still locating
　　   karman outside oneself. Shibayama Roshi puts this by
　　   speaking  of the "ghost-story"  aspect of karman: if
　　   you are united  with  your  karman, you  are  not  a
　　   ghost;   if  you  are  not   a  ghost,  you  do  not