NOVICE & ADVANCED TRAINING
The Way of the Wisdom Keeper
Initiation into Shamanism and Zen Buddhism supported by the guiding wisdom of a Buddhist Monk and Initiated Elder
“When the student is ready the teacher will appear” – Buddha
Novice & Advanced Training Tracks
Know Thyself ~ The Way of the Wisdom Keeper
Journey around BEZA’s Medicine Wheel composed of 5 Elemental Bodies ~ Fire, Water, Earth, Nature, & Stone.
BEZA’s Medicine Wheel
There are 5 essential Elements, or Medicines in the BEZA Medicine Wheel. These Elements are the foundational energetic building blocks of all life. Seekers, Initiates, Apprentices & Students devote their activity and attention to the power of one of Mother Earth’s Elemental Bodies at a time. Each Elemental Module lasts approximately two months. It takes one year to complete the journey.
How would you like to begin your deep journey into Truth?
Studying the Self through an ancient African & Asian Elemental Medicine Wheel you will learn what it really means to Know Thyself. By making visible the invisible world (bringing to light the hidden medicine within) you’ll begin to understand the deep mysterious nature of the Self and its relationships within the Human, Nature and Spiritual Realms.
By selecting either of these monthly subscriptions: The SEEKER or The INITIATE in the NOVICE TRACK; or The APPRENTICE or The STUDENT in the ADVANCED TRACK, you will receive various levels of engagement and guidance from the experienced mentorship of Initiated Elder and Senior Zen Monk Ekan Nangaku.
Novice Training Track
The SEEKER
Seekers enter the Novice Track through the Essential Meditation Gateway. This monthly membership of only R100 (€20) offers you the following:
- SEEKERS receive a 2.5% discount on all In-Person Retreats
- Intro to ZAZEN (1x guided recording)
- Daily ZAZEN meditation (live online)
- One Indigenous tree planted for every new Sangha Member
- Nangaku’s Spiritual Journey: A Memoir (Ebook)
- Free BEZA’s Monthly Newsletter
- *R100 off every time you register for any of the sessions listed below:
- *50min Heart Mentoring Sessions (R500 to R400)
- *50min Shamanic Mentoring Sessions (R500 to R400)
- *50min Divination Sessions (R900 to R800)
- *Monthly Subscription & Registration required
R100/€15 monthly member payments
The INITIATE
Initiates enter the Novice Track through the Introduction to Shamanism Gateway. Begin your Journey around the Medicine Wheel. This monthly membership of R500 (€75) offers you everything in The SEEKER (see above) plus the following:
- INITIATES receive a 5% discount on all In-Person Retreats
- Shamanic Training (10hrs+ of recordings for each of the 5 Elemental Modules – a module lasts 2 months)
- Elemental Manual (step-by-step Shamanic Training E.Workbook)
- Elemental Meditations (5x guided recordings – 1 per Elemental Module)
- A Sunday-long ZAZENKAI per month ~ a Meditation Immersion (live online with training)
- A Zen-&-Nature Dharma Talk per month (live online during Zazenkai)
- *Monthly Subscription & Registration required
R500/€75 monthly member payments
Advanced Training Track
The APPRENTICE
Apprentices enter the Advanced Track through the Holistic Gatekeeper Apprentice Gateway. By combining Meditation with Shamanic practice you deepen your understanding of Self. This monthly membership of R750 (€100) offers you everything in The Initiate (see above) plus the following:
- APPRENTICES receive a 7.5% discount on all In-Person Retreats
- Holistic Communication Training (1x 2hr Community Council Training recording)
- 1x 3hr Community Council gathering per month (live online)
- 1x 50min Heart Mentoring Session per Elemental Module (live online)
- 1x Ango per year (a 3 month at-home Mindfulness Practice Intensive)
- 1x 50min Divination Session per year (live online)
- *Invitation to undergo Divination Training (10x 2hr sessions per month; minimum 5 people required; additional costs apply)
- *Completion of 2 Elemental Modules to receive a Divination
- *Completion of all 5 Elemental Modules required for Divination Training
- *Monthly Subscription & Registration required
R750/€112.50 monthly member payments
The STUDENT
Students enter the Advanced Track through the Lineage Student Gateway. Students enter into a committed relationship with the Teacher – Ekan Nangaku – as his formal Student and of the Lineages he carries. This membership is by invitation having first displayed your dedication to your spiritual evolution through The Apprentice Track. This monthly membership of R1000 (€125) offers you everything in The Apprentice (see above) plus the following:
- STUDENTS receive a 10% discount on all In-Person Retreats
- 1x 50min STUDENT Mentoring Session per month (live online)
- 2x 50min Divinations per year (live online)
- 1x 2hr Zen Buddhist Studies class per month (live online)
- 1x 2hr Zen Buddhist Precept Training per month (live online)
- *Invitation to Zen Buddhist Initiation in Japan (2 weeks; min 5 people required; additional costs apply)
- *After completing 2 Elemental Modules of being an Apprentice, a ‘Letter-of-Asking’ is required to become a Student
- *Initiation Ceremony into Student Sangha required (live online)
- *Monthly Subscription & Registration required
Gatekeeper Student Training is by invitation.
R1000/€150 monthly member payments
Apprentices are able to progress in their training to become a student and facilitator:
Student Gate
by invitation
Facilitator Gate
for committed students
Not yet Ready for Apprentice Training?
Enter any of these Guest Gates
Enter BEZA’s Gateways through any of our daily, weekly, or monthly offerings:
Who are the Wisdom Keepers?
Gatekeepers are shamanic Wisdom Keepers whose function is to purify the energies they let in and out of their being.
By attuning, cleansing, and bringing these energies into balance, Gatekeepers become the Wisdom Keepers of the World.
Gatekeeper’s are initiates of the 5 Elemental Bodies of the Medicine Wheel. We are the body of Mother Earth from whom we originate.
A Gatekeeper upholds integrity and responsibility in all relationships – professional and personal. They serve the transformational power of love for the benefit of all beings.
In our work here at BEZA our space-holders are not performers. They are trained facilitators. They are trained to co-regulate with who is in the space. As a facilitator they are aware that
every person in the space is unconsciously tuning into the facilitator’s frequency whose body is always broadcasting. The question is – what is it saying?
Every tradition that truly understood the art of holding – knew the holder was not the source. They were a vessel. Chosen. Prepared. Cleaned. Something ancient moved through them. Not from them. A vessel isn’t passive. It is tended.
Un-metabolized grief. Un-faced shadow. Ancestral wounds still running.These don’t stay inside. They bleed into the field. They shape what’s possible for the people in the space-holder’s care. Before they enter a healing space with other’s – they examine what they are carrying? There is a threshold every true space holder crosses. From performing the role to becoming the medicine. One does not cross this threshold with more training. They cross it by going into the places within themselves they’ve been afraid to enter. They were called to this work because something ancient recognized them. They honor this by doing the work that keeps them clean enough to transmit it.
They are learning to hold the field. To trust what moves through them. To get out of the way. This is the subtle art. This is the part that most don’t speak about. But first it must begin with allowing themselves to be held in a trustworthy field. To learn what that feels like. To embody trust – become Trust. As this develops they learn to hold trust in their lives – with others, with their own triggers. And when they begin to trust this Sacred Trust, healing happens. As they practice and develop confidence and responsibility they begin to learn how to get out of the way – to hold space and facilitate healing. They become vessels for love, integrity and healing – a Gatekeeper who is a channel for ancient wisdom, but not the source of it.
Lead Mentor
Ekan Nangaku Leisching
Ekan Nangaku Leisching, a student of Seido Suzuki Roshi of Tōshōji Training Monastery in Japan, is working with the first generation of students to establish a Sōtō Zen training center on the African Continent.
Nangaku, the founder of Born as the Earth School, is a senior Zen monk who has taken vows to liberate all beings. He is an initiated elder & shaman, meditation teacher, mentor, diviner and writer, and has studied with Zen masters, indigenous shamans, psychotherapists and mythologists for over 35 years.
Spiritual awakenings took Nangaku on a quest across the globe to find the golden thread uniting all spiritual traditions. While living in the USA he ran several environmentally sustainable businesses and founded Earth School. After returning to South Africa he began offering authentic spiritual training in the Stanford area of the Western Cape where he has planted over 10,000 trees.
He has guided students in reclaiming their natural sovereignty. A lifetime of experience allows him to meet students at any stage of their journey and offer appropriate tools to birth their full potential.
Apprentice Mentor
Raine Nyogetsu Waring
Since July 2021, Nyogetsu has worked closely with Ekan Nangaku in the creation of BEZA. Supported in her student relationship with Nangaku she has embarked on a path of spiritual awakening and transformation. Nyogetsu has travelled deeply into her medicine gifts. Having journeyed around BEZA’s Medicine Wheel several times, she is honing her awareness and embodiment of each Elemental Gateway. Marrying her inner- and outer-landscapes, she is committed to practicing an integrated, holistic life of truth, sustainability and oneness.
Nyogetsu, offers a grounded, open-hearted and generous hand. Holding BEZA’s ethos and guiding principles in her core, and supported by her study of End of Life Companionship, She weaves death practices into her facilitation work, guiding people through the important process of grief, loss, and letting go. Through movement, embodiment and creative practices that focus on authentic, creative expression and storytelling, her 10 year career in Performance Art provides the skills needed to return people to the sacredness of their bodies.
Apprentice Mentor
Gill O’Sullivan
Gill has a deep curiosity about the interconnectedness of emotional, physical, and spiritual health, and has delved into various personal growth and healing modalities, including studying psychology, aromatherapy, homoeopathy, embodiment, dance, and PSYCH-K.
Her meditation journey began 25 years ago, and she has deepened and expanded her practice since joining Born as the Earth Zen Academy in January 2023.
Gill, a BEZA shamanic lineage carrier, has always had a close connection with nature, and believes that her health and healing and the health of our beautiful planet are interconnected and intertwined. Her Gatekeeper Apprentice training with BEZA has fostered a greater understanding of the natural elements, and she is inspired to continue her training and deepen her connection to nature and, in this way, herself.
Gill is committed to this journey of mindfulness, self-knowledge, healing, growth and sustainability, and feels privileged to be mentored by Nangaku and the Born as the Earth Zen Academy community.
Topics covered on your journey around the Medicine Wheel
Transformation of Self
Discover your true potential and regain sovereignty over your spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical intelligence.
Buddhist & Indigenous Wisdom
Learn timeless practices passed down through generations from an initiated elder, Buddhist priest and shaman.
Connection with Nature
Reconnect with the essence, diversity of expression, and limitless wisdom of Mother Earth. Open the gates to the natural guidance of your innate wisdom.
Elemental Mastery
Remember deep insights into the five elemental bodies of the Medicine Wheel, unlocking profound wisdom and understanding.
Zen Buddhism
Through the Buddhist teachings of the 4 Noble Truths, Eightfold Path, Precepts and Zazen Meditation open to the infinite enormity of your particular originality and immediacy of presence.
Shamanic Practices
Experience transformative and holistic shamanic practices through ritual, initiations, community council, practical spirituality, ancestral healing, and divination.
Energy Purification
Learn to purify and balance your energy and the energy that surrounds you and become a Gatekeeper of these sacred teachings and their healing potential.
Upcoming Elemental Modules
Every 12 months we complete and restart a cycle of apprentice training around the medicine wheel.
Visionary FIRE Module
Way of the Ancestors
Work with what inspires – your dreams, aspirations and passion for life. Transmute all that stands in the way of your spiritual potential. Channel your purpose into realities that align with your truth. In this gateway you work with light & vision; alchemical illumination; dreams & myth; divination; and ancestral healing.
Compassionate WATER Module
Way of Balance
Learn harmonising techniques - how to sense and relate to others. Access your emotional intelligence. Navigate the complexities of human and non-human relationships. Acquire the skills of meditation; compassion; resonance; resolving dilemma; and shadow work.
Grounded EARTH Module
Way of the Heart
Never before has "Knowing Thyself" been so vitally important. During the Grounded EARTH Module (the third Elemental Gateway in the BEZA Medicine Wheel), we learn practical and spiritual skills to reconnect with Mother Earth - and consequently our True Self.
Zen Master Daido Loori Roshi once said, "To be born as the earth is not the same as being born. It is to realize that these mountains and rivers and the whole earth itself is our true human body." This will be the theme of this Module. Gatekeeper Training in the Earth Element is an initiation into Self. We have all been on a long and winding journey, ultimately searching for ourselves. This is the journey homeward - the Great Return: a Homecoming.
During this Module we learn how to remain centred during these extraordinary times of revolutionary change and powerful transformation. Anchor into the abundance available within your grounded, present self. Become open and available (no matter the situation) with an ever expanding heart while the truer you emerges. Reclaim your sovereign uniqueness as you learn to embody your inherent enlightenment. Study how abundance and karma are related and how to orient yourself at the various stages and cycles of growth. Embrace your healing power as you open to Mother Earth's Love. Celebrate the diversity of all dualities and manifestations as you connect to the unifying, common ground of community, home, identity, and otherness.
Medicine of NATURE Module
Way of Medicine
Make Way for your Truth - The world needs your undomesticated, truest self in this moment. This training is for the committed ones who are eager to uncover their authentic selves and give the gift of their unwavering Truth to the world. We will explore the subtle and spontaneous workings of Nature as a guide to bringing you into a more intimate relationship with your originality and genuineness. Read the signs around you. Meet unpredictability with authenticity and curiosity. Trust your medicine to meet revolutionary moments with truth. In this Module we study medicine gifts; transformation; the trickster; authentic expression; transformation; shapeshifting and truth.
Creative STONE Module
Way of Story
How to effectively communicate - teach, lead and create the systems necessary to connect with others. Express your life’s purpose and build supportive networks. Work with communication; power structure; manifestation; motivation, goals & quests; and story keeping.
We plant a tree for the first event / training you attend. We help restore your inner- and outer-environment.
FAQ’S
What is "Dana payment" and why are we asking for it?
True Wisdom teachings are priceless. The Wisdom Teachings you will receive are beyond commodification. They have taken years of study and verification to compile and have been received at great personal cost by BEZA’s Lineage. They are generously offered to you as BEZA’s gift to you – it is our DANA.
Is this program academic or theoretical?
Not at all. While there will be profound guidance transmitted to you via an online live presentation, the 2 month-long investigation is hands-on, practical and self-directed. It’s important for you to have an embodied experience – direct contact with the nature of the Element. The entire training is designed this way – not to transmit information, but rather invite self-discovery through personal exploration of yourself in relation to the Element.
What happens during the private Heart Mentoring sessions?
You get to ask any questions you like… about the element, how it functions in your life, how to work with it, how it is manifesting in your life at present. The facilitator will use the context of the elemental training to guide you to work with the Element directly. The mentoring session is there to open the gates for your personal journey into the Element’s medicine and learn how to use it in a practical way in your life.
What is divination?
Divination has been around as long as we humans have. We use divination to make the invisible world visible. The invisible world holds what is not yet known. Through divination we receive this wisdom – it is made available for you to integrate into your journey. Nangaku uses sacred talismans, bones, stones and other amulets which become the vocal chords of the Other World. He spreads them over an Elemental Medicine Wheel. Where and how they land in relation to other items and the mandala reveals profound information for you to ingest and metabolise.
Earthen Zen
The Elemental Journal
The Practice of Seniority at BEZA
Academy Students Travel to Japan