QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
WITH
ZEN TAO

Q:  My sister is seriously ill with breast cancer.  She has two young children.  I understand that she has to totally transform her being if she is to heal herself and to survive.  I am very happy to help her in whatever way that I can, but what if her illness is karmic?  Does that mean that it is her destiny to die.  Will all my help be misplaced?  Will it raise false hopes for everyone concerned?

ZT:  Cancer is the major karmic disease of this time.  It is, so to speak, the ultimate means of karmic settlement.  Either you totally transform your being, on the level of body, mind and soul, and so heal your cancer, or else you stay in your old patterns of behaviour and allow the cancer to invade your whole body and you die.  Either way karmic settlement is taking place.  Many people are having to transmute old patterns of karma at this time in preparation for a future incarnation in the New Age.  As we approach the ending of this Piscean Age it is a fact that more and more people are getting cancer.  Medical science has struggled to find a cure for cancer but without success.  Doctors and surgeons cannot cure cancer, they can only surgically remove cancerous growths from their patients or else attempt to destroy the cancer with radiation treatment.  Rarely do they address the cause of cancer in a patient and what must be done to prevent a reoccurrence of the disease.  I will state now that the cure for cancer lies within.  It is down to the will, the determination and the consciousness of a person to see clearly the nature of their being and of their lifestyle and to accept that they have created the cancer, or rather that they have allowed the cancer to grow within their bodies.  It is not an invasion from without.  In one sense the struggle between the good and the negative or cancerous cells within the human body is reflected in the struggle between good and evil in the world as a whole. 

 In the case of this lady, because young children are involved and form a part of this test, I suspect that the cancer has been occasioned by the need for karmic settlement and can probably be traced to patterns of behaviour over many past lives.  She is facing past karma.  At the ending of an Age patterns of many lifetimes have to be faced and transmuted.   The female breast is the symbol of the feminine principle in a woman and illnesses of the breast are nearly always associated with an inability to come to terms with the feminine energy of creation, and by feminine I do not mean in the physical sense, but in the spiritual sense, in the aspect of her being that links her to all that is feminine in creation.  So I would ask your sister not just to heal herself in terms of diet, lifestyle and positive thinking, but also with regard to coming to terms with the feminine energy of her being.  She should examine the way in which she manifests and grounds that feminine energy, and the way in which it affects her relationships with both family and friends.  She must be honest with herself and if she would like you to be a part of the healing process then you can be a mirror for her, to help her to see herself more clearly.  You can commune with her and walk the path to wholeness with her. 

 Be aware that no disease happens by chance.  Every disease is a specific challenge to the soul.  There would be no disease without a weakness within.  What the person has to recognise and to accept is the inner cause of that weakness.  Correct the weakness and then healing can take place.  Unfortunately, sometimes the personality is so in control of the body that it creates strong feelings of denial of the truth.  For example, a person who is dying of lung cancer will smoke to their dying day rather than face the truth of their being.  They are not prepared to change.  They would rather die than change. Such a person will, of course, have to come back in yet another life in order to face and transmute that very same challenge, even though it may be presented to them in a different form.  With the responsibility of young children resting on her shoulders, your sister is facing the ultimate test.  Will she change not just for herself but for her children.    That is a very powerful motivation.

Q:  About three years ago I was very ill, but I recovered.  Of course afterwards one reflects at length on one’s illness.  In my case the doctors could not find the cause, so it was all rather confusing for me.  I have been thinking about what the real reason was, but I have felt nothing, so what would be the purpose of me having such an illness? 

ZT:  You have to realise that there are three levels of illness, namely, body; mind and soul.  I have just been talking about the levels of mind and soul.  The level of the body is quite different because of one important fact; namely, you are not your body.  Your body dies, but you do not.  You are an eternal being, but your body is not.  So in that you are separate from your body, then, you have to have a dialogue with your body.  You have to service and maintain your body, you have to enter into a relationship with your body, you need to love and to honour your body and to treat it with respect.   You, the true you that is, the spark of divine spirit, are like a god to all the consciousness within your body.  Your body looks to you as you would look to God.  You therefore have to treat your body as the temple of God.  You have to have a dialogue with it, to listen to its requests, to be aware of its strengths and its weaknesses, to co-operate with it rather than to coerce it but, above all, to always be in control of it.  Recognise that your body has consciousness and feeling.  If you abuse your body, then, it will tell you so.  However, if you communicate with your body, if you warn it of any task that it is going to have to perform, and seek its co-operation, then your body will assist you in that task.  If you try to impose your will on your body then, inevitably, your body will protest.  If you choose to ignore these protests, then your body will complain more loudly.  Whereas before it was talking to you, now it is screaming at you!  That is what pain is - a scream for help, a scream for attention.  Unfortunately, most people are so unaware of their bodies that the first sign of an illness for them is usually the scream.   As far as your illness is concerned, even though it has now gone, you know that your body was talking to you, even if you were not listening.  The illness might occur again, so it is vital that you open a dialogue with your body, that you start to be aware of it, to listen to it, to observe your personal lifestyle and to go into the silence of your being to discover what was the cause of your illness.  

Q:  Thank you so much for your advice.  You must have far better things to do than to listen to all of our problems.

ZT:  I am happy to be of service.  Your problems are my problems.  Although you are incarnate and I am discarnate, we are all one race, born of one God.  There truly is no separation between us.  When you cry, I cry.  When you suffer, I suffer.

Q:  I feel very sad about the fact that so many souls are suffering.  I really can’t understand why there has to be so much suffering.  I thought our God was a God of Love.

ZT:  Well, you should ask yourself the question “Why do you feel sad that souls suffer?”

 Q:  I guess that it is because I tend to look at it from an earthly point of view.  I don’t see suffering as an opportunity for learning.  I just see another human being suffering and I want it to stop.

ZT:  There is an easy way and a hard way of learning.  The easy way is through awareness and observation.  The hard way is through experience and suffering.  You only progress to the hard way if you ignore the easy way!  Please remember, though, that God does not inflict suffering.  All suffering is self-inflicted and is as a result of past actions.  Man is simply reaping the harvest of the seeds that he has sown.  God is merely the observer in all of this.  So if the suffering is self-inflicted, why do you feel sad?  If the suffering is leading to an increase in soul consciousness, why do you feel sad?   A parent may observe a child eating too much and warns the child that if it continues to do so it will make itself sick.  If the child continues to eat, the parent will probably sit back and will allow the child to learn from the experience.  It is the most potent way.  He might feel sad that the child has to learn in this way but, ultimately, he knows that it is for the child’s highest good and that it will benefit the child in the long run.  Above all, though, always remember that the spirit never suffers.  The divine spirit operates on a level far above human suffering.  It too is simply the observer in all of this, the observer of the great drama of life.

Q:  In a situation such as this, Zen Tao, where you are speaking through this instrument, to what extent is your advice based on your own wisdom or does it come from a source of infinite truth.

 ZT:  When I converse with you, as I do now, then my answers to your questions are based on my own understanding, on my soul consciousness.  A higher point of consciousness might provide a different viewpoint on a particular question, but it might also experience difficulty in relating that viewpoint to life on the Earth, particularly if that being had never experienced physical life on the Earth.  Doorkeepers or guides, such as myself, are appointed to that role because we have lived many lives on the Earth and appreciate the reality of living in a physical body and the challenges that that produces.  If you were to ask me a question to which I could not readily provide an answer, I would inform you of that fact.  I would have to go and ask a Master on my level of life to provide an answer to your question which I would then be able to relate to you at a future sitting.  There are, on the higher planes of life, many points of consciousness, as well, of course, as many souls who have great experience of life on the physical plane of Earth.  I can tap into all those sources.  It is rather like going to a university and seeking out the professor in charge of a specific field or area of expertise in order to hear his opinion.  For example, if you were to ask me a medical question, because I have no medical experience on which to call, I would have to go and ask a spirit being who had had experience of physical medicine in order to provide you with an answer.

 This instrument through which I now speak works primarily on a teaching vibration, that is to say he acts as a channel for esoteric wisdom and knowledge.  He has learned to attune his being to that vibratory note or frequency.   I could here use the analogy of tuning your radio to a specific waveband in order to receive a specific radio station.  If you tune to a classical station you will receive classical music and if you tune to a rock station you will receive rock music.  Similarly this instrument is accustomed to tuning in to the teaching vibration with which he works.  If he had so desired, in the early days of his channelling experience, he could have tuned in to another vibration and could be channelling that vibration now.  Of course it is possible for other beings on my side of life to speak through this instrument, but it is difficult to do this when we use mental mediumship as opposed to trance mediumship, because the instrument may not be receptive to a new vibration.  I would also like to take this opportunity to emphasise that you are responsible for accepting or rejecting anything that I say to you.  You must use your God-given powers of discrimination to determine if what I say is truth for you.  Never blindly accept anything as the gospel truth, no matter what the source.  Always check to see if it resonates with the eternal part of you, if it is acceptable to your conscience.  Always test the spirits.

Q:  I would like to know if all the wisdom that you share with us and, in particular, the human qualities which you project, will be with you when you incarnate again, or is it possible that in your next life you may exhibit the very opposite qualities and may play a very negative role?

ZT:  I choose to present myself to you as Zen Tao, a Tibetan monk.  That is not who I really am.  I, like you, am really a point of light, a being of spirit, of formless and nameless energy, but how can you relate to that, how can you identify with that?  Whilst incarnating in form you find it difficult to identify with the formless and the nameless and so I choose to present a form and a name to you to which you can relate.  That is why all the messengers of God who are sent down to Earth take a human form and name.  I could have chosen any of the forms of my past incarnations but I selected my last life because my instrument has close links with Tibetan religious life in a previous incarnation.  Obviously the physical body of Zen Tao died many years ago and its essence has returned to the Earth along with all of its memories and experiences.  However the soul imprint of that life remains with the energy that is the eternal me, my divine spirit or atma.  I can call upon it just as I can call upon the soul memory of all my past lives.  So what I share with you is my soul memory, not the memory of Zen Tao, is my point of consciousness, not the point of consciousness of the physical being that was known as Zen Tao.  When I incarnate in my next life, although my soul consciousness will be the same, the role that I will play and the personality that I will embody could be quite different.   You must be aware that many great souls are called upon to play what you would consider to be very negative roles.  This Earth is a school of learning and it is the balance and contrast of the positive and the negative energies that creates the drama of life which provides the learning experiences for so many souls.

 I would ask you to understand that what I am offering to you is my soul consciousness, my understanding of creation and of the universal laws that control all things visible and invisible, so as to awaken your soul consciousness.  Everything that you will ever need to know, not just in this life but in all your future lives, is already within you.  You just have to awaken it, to bring it into your present consciousness.   If I have walked a little further along the path of spiritual understanding than you, then my only desire is to share that understanding with you, so that you in turn can share it with all whom you meet.  I serve not just you but the whole of Humanity.  I desire not just to uplift your soul but every human soul.  We are all part of the group human soul, the Human Race, incarnate and discarnate, and every soul that evolves and uplifts itself evolves and uplifts the whole Human Race.  So, rather like Shakespeare has characters in his plays to project his point of view, I use Zen Tao to project my soul point of view.  My divine consciousness has lived many lives on the Earth and all of that experience I offer to you.  Unfettered by a human body and a human ego I am not subject to the pressures that limit your soul expression.  I have no desires other than to fulfil the Creator’s Plan for the Human Race.  I offer my being in service to you, to the God in you, for the upliftment of the whole Human Race. What is important is not the messenger, but the message.  Do not concern yourselves with Zen Tao.  Concern yourselves only with the seeds which my words may germinate in you.

Q:  The whole Western world is based on the philosophy of Christianity, which proclaims that Jesus Christ forgave people for their sins.  Christians today go to church and confess to their sins and are forgiven by their priest.  I don’t understand how this ties in with karma and the understanding that one has to reap what one sows, that there is no such thing as forgiveness, only repayment.  

ZT:  There are two very separate elements to your question, namely, the actions of a great Master and the actions of the Church that is based on that Master’s life and teachings.  It is a fact that a great Master such as Jesus, who was overshadowed by the Christ Consciousness, has the power to transmute and to remove karma.  He could indeed take on someone’s karma, but he would only do this if the person concerned had learned the lesson that occasioned the karma in the first place.  Remember the story of the sick woman who touched his aura and was healed and to whom he said “Your faith has made you whole”.  Her understanding and faith was the means of her healing, of her forgiveness.  Now I will not go into the whole history of the Christian Church, but it is a fact that very early in its existence it took upon itself the right to forgive sins and this became an instrument of considerable power, especially  in the early days of Christianity, because it could control people, even kings, through the administration of this power. 

 When Christianity was struggling to become an accepted religion, indeed, was struggling for survival, an unholy alliance was formed between Church and State.   If the Church supported the kings of Europe through the endorsement of doctrines such as the divine right of kings, then the kings would support and protect the Church in return.  The Church very cleverly created the concept of sin and forgiveness and gave itself the power of forgiveness.  So if you sinned and, in particular, broke the Church’s laws, the Church decreed that you would go to hell without the Church’s forgiveness.  So this was the ultimate check on the sovereign power of the kings and queens of Europe.  No matter what they did to the Church if they did not make restitution they were doomed!  The whole concept of sin and forgiveness was simply an instrument of political control for the Church and you can see how, over the centuries, this power was abused by the Church.  History reveals how the kings and queens of Europe did terrible things but were forgiven by the Church provided they said that they were sorry.  This whole process, which very often involved the gift of money to the Church, became a travesty of the original demonstration by Jesus.  The Church had no divine authority to forgive sins. 

 If we were to use the word karma instead of sin you would see the ridiculousness of the whole situation.  How can a body that is itself subject to karma, alter karma?  How can it take upon itself the right to administer one of the great Laws of the Cosmos to which everything in Creation is subject.  It is a fact, though, that great souls such as the Master Jesus, through acts of personal sacrifice can and do take on and transmute the karma of individuals, towns, countries, nations, even the world.  But they are not removing the karma, they are transmuting it through their own actions.  There has to be an appropriate reaction to every action.  Someone has to pay the karma.  That is why it is said that the Master Jesus died to take on the sins of the world, to transmute some of the world’s karma, to reduce its karmic burden.  Forgiveness by the person or persons that have been wronged can and does modify the karma of all the persons involved.  Can you forgive someone who has wronged you?  This, surely, becomes the greatest test of the spirit of forgiveness.  Can you forgive someone who has killed your wife or son, for example, or do you want revenge?  If the Earth is a school of learning then the purpose of life is to teach and to transform not to punish and get even.  So life does not punish or forgive people for their actions, it places them in situations where they can appreciate the reality of what they have done and change of their own free will.  It helps them to change from Saul to Paul, as the story in the Bible proclaims. 

 No sacrifice is ever in vain, no sacrifice ever passes without notice.  Every act of karmic transmutation that you perform transforms the whole world.  So someone like the Master Jesus sacrificing his life would create a great transmutation of human karma, the more so as he forgave those who persecuted and killed him.  “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  In saying this Jesus is simply reflecting the position of every human being.  You sin because you don’t know who you are, you don’t appreciate that you are aspects of God, manifestations of perfection in incarnation on the Earth.  So here we have a great Master asking God to forgive those who have sinned against him.  It is not his forgiveness but God’s forgiveness that they need.  Karma has to be repaid but not necessarily by the individual who has created it.  It can be repaid by the sacrifice of other beings. So that was one of the purposes of Jesus’s incarnation, one that has been imitated by many other great masters who have incarnated upon the Earth in order to show Humanity the reality of their beings.

 Perhaps you can now begin to see the difference between the sins of the Christian Churches and the great Law of Karma.  Do not confuse karma with sin.  Sin is a human creation.  Karma is a cosmic fact of life.  You can sin against the Church but not against God.  You can create karma with God but not with the Church.  Be aware that you can forgive sins against you but no-one can forgive sins on God’s behalf.  Finally remember that karma is not punishment, it is a teaching tool, an evolutionary tool. Your God is a God of Love and His only desire is that you become like Him.  You are his children and he protects and guides you as you learn your lessons and grow to spiritual adulthood, as you reap what you have sowed.