transmigrate.(25) When the mind wanders  outside  of
　　   itself,  it  naturally  locates  karman  outside  of
　　   itself,   and   so   generates　　 the   notion　　 of
　　   transmigration, which is essentially  a metaphor  of
　　   the   wandering　　 mind   (which   should   not   be
　　   literalized).

　　　　  Not to wander means to exist each condition  and
　　   situation  as absolute.  When  this  is the way  one
　　   lives, it is literally  not  possible  to wander  or
　　   transmigrate  in this sense, since there  is nowhere
　　   to go when one lives in the absolute.  If "here"  is
　　   always absolutely  here, then there is no "there" at
　　   all.   True   nomindedness,   then,  precludes   the
　　   possibility  of  wandering  and  transmigration   by
　　   undermining  the very  significance-conditions  that
　　   would make such a possibility intelligible  to begin
　　   with.  (As they say in Maine: "You  can't  get there
　　   from here.")

　　　　  In conclusion, I think we can agree  with R.  H.
　　   Blyth's  remark that the problem of karman is solved
　　   not by transcending  it, but by reaching  the ground
　　   of being--thusness.(26) Karman  is a great  apparent
　　   obstacle to the realization  of thusness or suchness
　　   because  it perpetually  tempts  us to engage in the
　　   misguided  ways  of the  relative, objectifying, and
　　   discriminating mind. Our impulse is to try to figure
　　   out how we are related to karman, but once we embark
　　   on this enterprise, we are already hopelessly  on te
　　   wrong  track, since the whole  point of suchness  is
　　   that it presupposes  a mind free  from the habit  of
　　   relating itself to anything, including  karman.  The
　　   moment one tries to figure out one's relationship to
　　   one's karman, one has become separate  from it;  one
　　   has become a ghost.  The Zen move here is to counsel
　　   us to reunite with our karman and stop being ghosts.
　　   In practice, the way of returning  to the ground  of
　　   being in suchness  is simply to forget about how one
　　   is or is not related to one's karman and just become
　　   it. Again: when a fox, be a fox; when an old man, be
　　   an old  man.  Stop  being, once  and  for  all, what
　　   Heidegger once called "a creature of distances."

　　　　　　　　　　　　   NOTES

　　　　  1. Dogen Kigen, Shobogenzo: The Eye and Treasury
　　   of the True  Law, trans.  Kosen  Nishiyama  and John
　　   Stevens,  Vol.   1   (Sendai,  Japan:  Daihokkaikaku