Thoughts from the Margins of ZEN (Excerpts)
© Carolyn G Buttram, 2007

Be authentic in all your dealings so that what you present on the outside are true and honest reflections of what is on the inside. Be aware that the unhealed cannot teach healing.

• This dream we live is so momentary, and then we awaken to our true self: timeless, formless, consciousness itself. To live fully in this dream you must open to your own heart, open to others’ hearts, and invite peace and joy into your experience of the world. Let go the illusion of separation that you carry.

• Leave anger behind you. Release all anger as the dream and the figment of your own imagination that it is. Reach for your own true nature, which is only love, now, and now, and now.

• Respect every sentient being; see the trueness of their spirit, which is also only love.

• Be as aware of others’ pain as you are of your own and know that you are not alone, nor could you ever be. You intimately connect to source and thru source, to all others.

• Every interaction with another is an invitation to express your highest and best.

• Every action and interaction is an opportunity to express you as your perfection.

• You body may be damaged, but the spirit, the life essence of you is changeless and perfect. This perfection is always available to you. Sit in silence and follow your breath to the inmost part of you that is perfection, that is connected, that is spirit. Go within the body to experience the reality of you and uncover your perfection. Allow your perfection to speak truth to you. No action, no event, and no thought can damage or destroy the perfection of you.

• Your true life is your spirit and the true life of all others is spirit. Any belief in differences between you and any other is illusion. From the same source, you and all others came, perfect and full of light. Return to that light in you and help others see the light they carry inside themselves by sharing your light.

• Quiet your mind. Be present in the moment. You alone have created the fear that you carry. The fear that you carry is maintained and grown by your ego and serves you not. You are precious, as precious as god herself; do not be confused by what others have told you about you. They also have covered up their true perfection with their ego. There is nothing to fear when you understand the nature of you and the nature of the spirit in you. You are pure love, anything that is not love cannot harm you.

• Only when you allow your unloving thoughts and actions to come forth in response to fear, are you harmed. Access your light and your love when confronted by unlove. Only by showing love in response to unlove, is the consciousness of the world elevated. Listen for instruction in this from only those who would show you your light. Take the truth only from one who has it.

• You are the essence of god experiencing this moment. How would you project the spirit that is you? As one who knows? As one who is? Or, as one who continues to cover their pure spiritual essence, and project something other than love. The love that you are gives to you to heal your wounds, and must be given to all others that you may heal their wounds.

• Uncover your essence, embrace your divine nature, and allow your true essence to shine through you to the entire world and the world changes forever.