Your Mentor
Mentor (v.) – to serve as a trusted counsellor
Mentor (n.) – diviner, seer, guide
“When the student is ready the teacher will appear.” – Buddha
“When the student is really ready the teacher will disappear.” – Lao Tzu
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
Glenn Nangaku Leisching
Glenn 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 training center on the African Continent.
Nangaku, the founder of BEZA, 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 BEZA. After returning to South Africa he began offering authentic spiritual training in the Stanford area of the Western Cape where he has facilitated the planting 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.
Lineage, Teachers & Mentors
BEZA is a unique merging of the ancient wisdom of two distinct lineages – one African, the other Asian.
As the founder and primary teacher at Born as the Earth Zen Academy (BEZA), I offer deep bows of gratitude to my lineage, teachers, and mentors. I am eternally grateful for supporting my training and encouraging me to deliver the gift of making the “invisible world, visible”.
Supported by my training with notable spiritual teachers in Southern and West Africa, I offer you but some of Africa’s vast indigenous wisdom. As a Zen monk and priest, zen meditation and the moral and ethical teachings of Buddhism hold the core teachings of unearthing you inherent Enlightenment. Merged, these two lineages enable the transmission of everyday spiritual practices for those who seek purpose and quality of life.
Suzuki Seido 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 6 month training intensive, BEZA has been created just for you.