Mentorship & Lineage
Mentor (v.) – to serve as a trusted counsellor
Mentor (n.) – diviner, seer, guide
Vast is the robe of liberation
a formless field of benefaction,
I wear the Tathagata’s teachings
Saving all sentient beings
– The Vow of the Bodhisattva
“When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” – Buddha
“When the student is really ready the teacher will disappear.” – Lao Tzu
Lead Mentor
Ekan Nangaku Leisching
Ekan Nangaku Leisching, a student of Suzuki Seido 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 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 Waring
Since July 2021, Raine 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. Raine 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.
Raine 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.
Raine carries her responsibility as a Student-Facilitator with reverence and care. Guided by love, intuition and sensitivity, she is honoured to devoutly support people along their own path to liberation.
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 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.
Lineage
BEZA is a unique merging of the ancient wisdom of two distinct lineages – one African, the other Asian.
Born as the Earth Zen Academy (BEZA) offers deep bows of gratitude to our lineage, teachers, and mentors. We are eternally grateful for their support of our training and their encouragement to deliver the gift of making the “invisible world, visible”.
Supported by training with notable spiritual teachers in Southern and West Africa, BEZA offers but some of Africa’s vast indigenous wisdom. Zen meditation (zazen), the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path, the Precepts (the moral and ethical teachings), and practicing the Buddhist Middle Way hold the core teachings of unearthing your inherent Enlightenment. Merged, these two lineages enable the transmission of everyday spiritual practices for those who seek purpose and quality of life.
Seido Suzuki Roshi
Patrice Malidoma Somé
Dagara Elder, Diviner, Shaman, Writer.
“Before you begin, you own the journey. After you set out, the journey owns you!”
Tash Esho Sudan
Sōtō Zen Osho, Tōshōji Temple, Japan.
“Why does Dōgen Zenji say “…there are Mountains hidden in Hiddenness?”
Baba Credo Mutwa
John Daido Roshi
Alice Galena Mazibuko
Wairo ‘Just Ask’ Somé
Dagara Holy Man, Diviner, Shaman.
“Only a stick insect knows how to carry the world on its back.”
Alexis Slutzky
Psychotherapist, Healer, Council Trainer.
“Trust, healing, truth, love, don’t know mind & joyful revelation.”
Mandaza Kandemwa
“There is a direct connection between human rehabilitation and environmental restoration – one cannot be accomplished without the other. Guided by love’s wisdom and its power to heal, I speak for Mother Earth and teach for the trees, waters and all beings. I have no other purpose than these. I love holding circles – healing, working, playing, sharing stories, and building community in them. Being with what dances to light when their edges are erased and the veil between self and other is lifted brings me great joy.” – Nangaku
Touching the Heart of the Matter…
The moment Siddhartha Gautama, the student, saw the morning star after sitting in deep meditation throughout the night, he touched the Earth and became the enlightened Buddha. Years of dedicated spiritual study culminated in this auspicious moment when the illusionary veil that separates heaven and earth was lifted.
To touch the Earth in the way the Buddha did is to ground your divinity and fully embrace and put into action your Buddha Nature – your True Self.
All BEZA participants are students of the Self. Anyone on a threshold of growth and transformation and curious about their hidden truths are welcome to engage at a level most suitable for them. Whether you are 18 or 80, of any shade or orientation, in one of our meditation classes, mentorship programs, or our 12 month training intensive, BEZA has been created just for you.