Apprentice Training
Celebration of Expression – Way of Joy

Celebration of Expression – Way of Joy

by | Oct 16, 2024 | Events

BEZA’s Annual Celebration of Expression weekend.

Join us in co-creating a weekend of Expressive Celebration!!! 

28 November – 1 December 2024. 
3/2 nights at Boschrivier Accommodations Stanford, WC. 

We begin on Thursday 28th November at 2:30 pm for a Celebratory Boat Cruise down the Klein Rivier on the African Queen. 

Come as your beautiful self, and bring along any talents or gifts and ingredients for a sumptuous meal you would like to share in this fun-filled weekend of creative expression.

The Possibilities are Endless:

Meditation, Yoga, Breathwork, Dance, Fire-side chats, Numerology, Divination, Creative Arts & Spontaneous Theater, Games, Music, Mountain/Fynbos Walks, Swimming, Communal Cooking, Simply Being, and more…

Accommodations:

  • A choice of THREE or TWO nights at the beautiful Boschrivier Accommodations – a picturesque, rural farm just outside Stanford, near Cape Town, WC.
  • Deluxe (1 or 2 people per double bed) and Shared Rooms (2 people in single beds).
  • Ensuite and Shared Bathrooms.

This event is exclusive for the BEZA Community and anyone interested in meeting our Sangha.

Priced at cost and generously discounted by Laing DeVilliers, BEZA Community member and owner of Boschrivier.

  • From R1200 (Two Nights) / R1400 (Three Nights)
  • Thursday (28th 2:30pm) Boat Cruise R250
Limited spots available!!
Join Us
Group photo of participants at BEZA’s Annual Celebration of Expression retreat near Cape Town, gathered at Boschrivier Accommodations for a weekend of meditation, creative arts, and community connection.
Participants engaging in creative arts during BEZA’s Annual Celebration of Expression retreat near Cape Town, exploring self-expression through painting and crafts.
Participants engaging in creative arts during BEZA’s Annual Celebration of Expression retreat near Cape Town, exploring self-expression through painting and crafts.
Participants enjoying a nature walk through the fynbos during BEZA’s Annual Celebration of Expression retreat near Cape Town, connecting with nature and embracing mindfulness.
Participants enjoying a nature walk through the fynbos during BEZA’s Annual Celebration of Expression retreat near Cape Town, connecting with nature and embracing mindfulness.
Participants planting trees at BEZA’s Annual Celebration of Expression retreat near Cape Town, symbolizing growth, renewal, and connection to the earth.
Friends sharing joyful moments at BEZA’s Annual Celebration of Expression retreat near Cape Town, strengthening connections and building community.
Group photo of participants at BEZA’s Annual Celebration of Expression retreat near Cape Town, gathered at Boschrivier Accommodations for a weekend of meditation, creative arts, and community connection.

Captured moments of joy and self-expression from last year’s Celebration of Expression. Every smile, dance, and shared moment reminds us that when we come together in creativity, the possibilities are endless. ✨

Let your heart speak, your soul dance, and your spirit soar in the magic of community.

“There are mountains hidden in hiddenness…”

“There are mountains hidden in hiddenness…”

by | Sep 19, 2024 | Beyond the Edge, Stone

Shamanic Gatekeeper Apprentice Training:

Creative module of STONE.

Dear Beautiful Creative Being,

Starting on the 5th October, a cohort of deeply curious and dedicated BEZA students and apprentices will embark on an 8 week deep dive into the creative power of stones.

 

THE CREATIVE POWER OF STONES!?  Yes, you read that right!  

 

“When we connect with our bones, the stones of our bodies, we connect with the powerful medicine of the mountains.”

Sharmanic Gatekeeper Apprentice Training

Creative module of STONE

Dear Beautiful Creative Being

Starting on the 5th October, a cohort of deeply curious and dedicated BEZA students and apprentices will embark on an 8 week deep dive into the creative power of stones.

THE CREATIVE POWER OF STONES!?  Yes, you read that right!  

“When we connect with our bones, the stones of our bodies, we connect with the powerful medicine of the mountains.”

Spiritual seekers have been going into the mountains for millennia. They have gone into the spacious, hidden mysteries of the stones to clarify, ground and empower themselves, returning back to the villages to heal and liberate all beings.

You are invited to come and learn with us – to become channels for the wisdom that originates from Mother Earth herself. We will learn how the stones – our bones, the mountains, minerals and metals, when combined or collided, create form – a resonating vibration that travels into the world.

By traveling into the deep memory of your bones, you will come to realize and embrace yourself as the creator! With this response-ability you’ll find power, and with this power an ancient knowing – that what you experience is a reflective resonance of your creation.

The stones and our bones are condensed energy – condensed power. Power and creation are synonomous. Entering our bones we access the power of the creativity to manifest who it is we are.

The time is now to bring that powerful force of creation into manifestation!

This training is for the committed, eager to uncover their limitless creativity. It is through resonance – telling our story, communication, leading, organizing and networking that we manifest our lives. When we study stones we re-cognizethat the bones of our body and their connection to the ancient stories of our being can be engaged to supercharge our creative ability – and hence our freedom.

We explore Stone’s intrinsic power and strength; their capacity for recording and storing information; and how their minerals are the structural building blocks of our bodies and minds, and all communication or transmission channels.

Stones hold a storehouse of secrets. Our evolution has depended on them. They were our first tools; our first art; symbolised our first myths; and the first sounds and languages. Stones have oriented our human collective from conception through to memorialised immortality. Gatekeepers to unknown realms, they inspire us to their noblest peaks and, they become barring barriers and porous boundaries.

The Stones and Mountains – they give us perspective and concepts like duality and unified fields of infinity. They are a record of our travels through tyrannical times to the sweetness of space. By their power and grandeur, our bones – the stones, propel us forward. They fuel our reach as far as far can lead – often to forgetfulness. Yet, they help us remember. Since forever, it has been so.

We all can remember The Way – to those ‘mountains hidden in hiddenness’ where, in their darkest depths, ‘stone women with nothing but eyeball’s in their skulls’ are mystically giving birth to ‘newborns in the night’.

We invite you to join the Creative Stone Module and remember who you are in your bones – to know your purpose, and work with the Stones to express yourself and make yourself whole with the Earth.

All you could ever wish to know is in your hands – a Gatekeeper you are, a Mountain of infinite wisdom. You know this in the stoney-bones of your Earthen body.

Just Ask is the translated name of the powerful mountain shaman who brought me back home through the stones. All you have to do to come back home is just ask.

Ekan Nangaku

Born as the Earth Zen Academy | BEZA | Elemental | Zen | Mentoring | Meditation | Generational Healing | Ancestors | Divination | Shamanic | Shamanism | Gatekeeper | DANA | Community Council | Buddhism | Spirituality | Nature | Mindfulness | Enlightenment | Awakening | Daido Roshi | Consciousness | Holistic | True Self | Wisdom | Medicine
Make Way for your Creative Expression!
  • Return home to your true, whole self and become a Facilitator in the New Earth Consciousness Revolution
  • Regain sovereignty over your spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical intelligence.
  • Access your full potential and serve all beings through wisely dispensing your Medicine Gifts
Throughout the training you will have access to empowering wisdom:
  • Personal development within a spiritual community
  • Integrative training supported by Level II & III students
  • 80hrs contact time per elemental module
  • Inclusive of supportive embodiment modalities: meditation, mentoring, community council, divination, yoga, Qi Gong, breath work, creative arts, movement and more.
Apply Here
Born as the Earth Zen Academy | BEZA | Elemental | Zen | Mentoring | Meditation | Generational Healing | Ancestors | Divination | Shamanic | Shamanism | Gatekeeper | DANA | Community Council | Buddhism | Spirituality | Nature | Mindfulness | Enlightenment | Awakening | Daido Roshi | Consciousness | Holistic | True Self | Wisdom | Medicine
Make Way for your Creative Expression!
  • Return home to your true, whole self and become a Facilitator in the New Earth Consciousness Revolution
  • Regain sovereignty over your spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical intelligence.
  • Access your full potential and serve all beings through wisely dispensing your Medicine Gifts
Throughout the training you will have access to empowering wisdom:
  • Personal development within a spiritual community
  • Integrative training supported by Level II & III students
  • 80hrs contact time per elemental module
  • Inclusive of supportive embodiment modalities: meditation, mentoring, community council, divination, yoga, Qi Gong, breath work, creative arts, movement and more.
Apply Here
BEZA turns Two!

BEZA turns Two!

by | Sep 19, 2024 | Beyond the Edge

The Road Less Travelled:

Making a difference.

Dear BEZA friends,

It was two years ago on the 2nd of September 2022 when BEZA welcomed our first 3 Apprentices for our opening training aptly named the Visionary Fire Module. Working with the energy of a new moon, the initiates gained entry to age-old methodologies and learned how to access inspiration, intuition, and heal generational wounding.

The Road Less Travelled

Making a difference

Dear BEZA friends,

It was two years ago on the 2nd of September 2022 when BEZA welcomed our first 3 Apprentices for our opening training aptly named the Visionary Fire Module. Working with the energy of a new moon, the initiates gained entry to age-old methodologies and learned how to access inspiration, intuition, and heal generational wounding.

This 2nd anniversary is a marker on our short journey. It is a moment to peek over our shoulders and see the less travelled road we had taken, and how it has made all the difference.

Without any budget, media platforms, name recognition, or desire for compensation, we opened the gates to BEZA’s online curriculum. With trust, a deep vow, open-hearted generosity, and a vision of merging two ancient spiritual lineages we began offering their conjoined wisdom.

Within 2 weeks of our launch back in 2022 I became a monk. This came with responsibility, empowerment and resolute faith to practice the first teaching I received from Seido Roshi at the ordination. Knowing little of what was before me, I asked Roshi for any guidance he had to offer…

“Open hands,” was his simple answer. And so, opening my hands, I let go of any expectation of what BEZA may become, and vowed to receive and serve the immeasurable perfection of the Buddha Way, the profundity of the Dharma, and the rare jewel of Sangha.

Since then we have been facilitating the homeward journey of over 120 awakening Buddhas in our steadily growing Sangha, 10 of whom have become formal students, two of whom are student facilitators. Together have planted over 300 indigenous trees – one for each who has come to taste the Dharma.

We continue to teach and learn with the cycles of the moon. As we approach the culmination of our second year of Apprentice Training, 16 apprentices will conclude the Medicine of Nature Module as they journey around the Medicine Wheel. Attendance in our daily meditations is regular and growing. Community Council has introduced the ancient art of the talking circle to over one hundred people. Since our birthing, we have had the privilege of performing over 200 divinations and 500 mentoring sessions for aspirants along the way.

Recently, BEZA hosted its first international student for a 21 day shamanic journey into the culture, landscape and spirituality of South Africa -an expanded journey is planned for November 2025. In May next year, a group of BEZA students and apprentices will travel to Japan and meet Seido Roshi at his international training monastery to receive the Buddhist precepts.

By the end of 2024, Born as the Earth Zen Academy will be registered as a non-profit.

Though we have only just begun, and as yet do not have our own land, BEZA is grounded firmly in the spirit of lineage. We take refuge in having received the baton from thousands of years of teacher-student transmissions and willingly carry this responsibility to share these sacred teachings with generations to come.

From no thing at all, BEZA, its Dharma and Sangha are blooming into flower. Noble seekers have come, received and offered gifts of generosity into a space created with, and for, well… generosity. The teaching of ‘Open hands’ is opening hearts. This spirit is materializing into substance, a new ground of abundance, where friends find new eyes and new pathways to horizons beyond the edge of what they thought was possible.

For all sentient beings, indeed for a New Earth, this is happening beyond any expectation.

May we each continue to water anuttarasamyak-sambodhi – the absolute ground of being, with love.

Honey in the Heart, 13 Thank-you’s.

Ekan Nangaku 

Meditate on your DNA – Predispositions & Epigenetics.

Meditate on your DNA – Predispositions & Epigenetics.

by | Jun 27, 2023 | Earth, Fire, Zen Buddhism

– Composed by Rebecca Bourhill and Glenn Nangaku Leisching

Introduction

Is it Nature or Nurture, or both? What is the interplay between your future of pure-potential, and the fixed limitations encoded in your memories and DNA? In this blog we explore recent research into how your genes respond to their environment. Research suggests your genes can be influenced to express themselves optimally, or not at all. Healthy behaviours (such as meditation) can slow, even stop, the ticking time-bomb of a potentially life-threatening genetic inheritance from your ancestors.

Defining predispositions and epigenetics?

Throughout the article, the term predisposition describes an individual’s increased risk of getting a condition based on their genetic makeup that has been inherited from their parents and their ancestral lineage.

These conditions range from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, – the list goes on.

Epigenetics refers to how your behaviour and environmental factors sets the scene, consequently affecting the way your genes express themselves. Epigenetics, broadly speaking controls gene activity without changing the DNA itself.

‘Epi-’ Greek for above. The term ‘epigenetic’ are factors that are ‘above’ or beyond the genetic code – external factors. Epigenetics is the study of how influences or modifications directed at your DNA regulate whether a gene is activated or not. These changes, in the form of chemicals, attach to the DNA genome, creating a ‘tag’. This tag – called the epigenome – does not change your genetic sequence itself. Rather, the epigenome affects the expression of your genes.

The good news is therefore, that because epigenomes (and their affect on gene expression) are influenced by lifestyle factors, chemical exposure and medication – all of which are controllable. Therefore, you can have a profound affect of your genetic expression!

The ‘hardware’ and ‘software’ in your genetic field

Let’s use the metaphor of yourself as a computer consisting of hardware and software. Your genome – what makes you, you – would be considered ‘hardware’…the unchangeable, inherited, part of yourself – your predispositions for different conditions and physical characteristics.

Now, what is exciting is that you have the ability to turn these gene predispositions ‘on’ or ‘off’ using lifestyle choices, or in keeping with the computer metaphor, ‘installing’ the correct, useful ‘software’ or ‘programs’ to create a positive outlook and keep harmful genes dormant.

Not only can you nurture or cultivate positive ancestral predispositions, you have the ability to dial the volume down on all the negative potential in your inherited nature.

The opposite is also true. Installing harmful ‘software’ will increase your chances of triggering genes that are potentially dangerous or life-threatening. Studies are showing that epigenetic changes (that are altered by lifestyle factors) can be passed on from generation to generation.

This essentially means the buck can stop with you! The changes you make today will influence the health of future generations.

Nature & Nurture: Influencing the outcome of predispositions

Identical twins, for example, inherit the same DNA, however, they can turn out to be vastly different from one another. At the age of say 55 one can get heart disease while the other can be running marathons in perfect health. Part of the answer to this lies in the way they have nurtured their genetic make-up by turning certain genes on or off.

Nature would be the genes the twins inherited – what has been passed down to them from previous generations. Nurturing is how one feeds or starves these genes. In one’s external world, pollutants, chemical exposure, diet and personal lifestyle choices encourage positive changes and impact on the epigenome. Your holistic choices in the form of dietary changes, increased exercise, stress reduction through meditation, and habitual changes, big or small, can determine which path your health takes.

A relatable example of smoking can be used to illustrate. If you have a predisposition for cancer you turn the cancer gene ‘on’ by feeding the fire. However, stopping the habit of cigarette use can immediately start reversing the damage caused. A similar model can be applied to sugar addiction with those who have a predisposition for obesity or diabetes.

Meditation: Between stimulus and response there is an opportunity!

Meditation can have a significant influence on your epigenetics.

The practice of Zen meditation for example, creates a moment of consciousness and space between whatever the stimulation may be and your habitual response. In the smoking example: the stimulus or trigger could be stress at work or a negative emotional experience. Often a smoker’s immediate response to the trigger or stress is to have a cigarette. The practice of Zen meditation develops mindfulness – awareness of unconscious, patterned behaviour. This awareness has the power to momentarily interrupt the stimulus-response cycle and affords youf the opportunity to choose a healthier, more empowered and self-aware response to the stress or what triggers you.

Conclusion

A daily morning practice of meditation sets the scene for the rest of your day and exercises your mindfulness muscles. In a highly charged situation taking a ‘mindful-minute’ helps you become present and aware of the trigger (stimulus) before immediately responding. Mindfulness can take the form of grounding yourself either through following the breath in and out and feeling the sensations in the body of your breath, or feeling your feet on the ground.

Beside the many other benefits of meditation and mindfulness, their practice gives you an opportunity to reprogram your software to make unscious behaviour more conscious thereby allowing time to consider whether your habitual response is helpful or harmful. Meditation supports these little pauses and provides the necessary space that help enhance positive behaviour or break negative programming which have a significant influence on the expression of your genes.

References

Nerlich, B. 2018. Epigenetics: Grappling with definitions.

Epigenetics: Grappling with definitions

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 2022. What are Epigenetics?

Guerrrero-Bosagna, C. 2017. TED-ed. What is Epigenetics?. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aAhcNjmvhc

Experiencing Depression? How Meditation can help.

Experiencing Depression? How Meditation can help.

by | Apr 20, 2023 | Earth, Nature, Zen Buddhism

– Composed by Rebecca Bourhill and Edited Glenn Nangaku Leisching

Introduction to Depression

Depression is a worldwide problem that can occur at any age. Although more common in people in their 30’s and 40’s, depression is now reaching our younger population due to various factors discussed later in the blog.

Depression drains the life-force from your body, leaving you with little to no energy, lethargy, deep sadness, despair, and hopelessness. If not addressed, extended bouts of depression can cause an individual to be house-bound, secluded, and with chronic health-related conditions.

There are many different forms of depression ranging from chronic mild depression to more severe major depressive disorders like manic depression or bipolar disorder.

Although the exact causes of depression are not known, there are three components that are known to contribute to its development. Factors include chemical or hormone imbalance, genetics and trauma.

Importance of applying Buddhist practices such as mindfulness, compassion, and empathy have been shown to have numerous benefits for mental and emotional well-being.

The Origin of Depression: chemical explanations; trauma; and genetics.

 

Chemical

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers used by nerve cells in the brain to communicate between neurons. In states of depression three primary neurotransmitters are out of balance.

The first is Dopamine. When an individual reaches a milestone, gets a work promotion or accomplishes a goal, dopamine is responsible for the ‘happy feeling’ that pulses through the body. Dopamine is the brain’s reward chemical.

Second, norepinephrine – the fight/flight chemical, if constantly raised due to long or regular exposure to trauma, an individual will tend to live in a state of hypervigilance in preparation for the next trauma inducing event to happen.

The third chemical is serotonin, known as the “feel-good chemical”. If there is an imbalance of serotonin, which can often be the case in depression, SSRIs (Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are sometimes used to increase serotonin levels. Not only is this chemical responsible for one’s mood but it also plays a role in other important body functions.

Although it was thought that low levels of these neurotransmitters were the primary cause, research is showing that there are other factors that can bring about depression.

Trauma

A traumatic life event can trigger a depressive episode, along with anxiety. Extended periods of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) caused by trauma, creates a continuous negative thought pattern which can lead to depression. Symptoms of both depression and PTSD overlap and often exist together.

Genetics

Another relatively recent field of study is intergenerational trauma. Evidence is emerging which shows that trauma can be passed from one generation down through the next five generations.

A well-known study of intergenerational trauma using children of Holocaust survivors was published in 1966 by a Canadian psychiatrist. In the article children of Holocaust survivors had an increased likelihood of depression, PTSD and anxiety. Trauma from the Holocaust created a change in the survivor’s genetics due to heightened exposure to the stress hormone cortisol. These genes were passed down to offspring.

Meditation and depression: How the brain responds to meditation

Although the practice of meditation can be traced back in time for many thousands of years, it is only recently that it has become a widely acknowledged tool to manage depression, anxiety, and mental health challenges.

The question needs to be asked: “Why or how does meditation help depressio

To help understand how the brain changes during meditation, we look at the brain’s neuroplasticity – the brain’s ability to change and adapt in response to new experiences and environmental changes.

In order for the brain to adapt and change, new neural pathways need to be created. Originally believed to only happen in childhood, it has been proven that new neural pathways are created throughout one’s lifetime. During bouts of depression, the creation of new pathways are disrupted. This is where meditation comes in.

Meditation can not only stop these depression induced pathway disruptors, it is now known that meditation can help rewire the brain and create new neural pathways. These physiological pathways created through meditation enable us to regulate and manage emotions more effectively by changing the structure of the brain’s hippocampus which controls emotional regulation and in the amygdala which manages our flight/flight responses to signs of danger in our environment.

Chemically, meditation reduces cortisol levels. High levels of stress can lead to stress-induced depression. Ultimately, lowering cortisol levels through meditation may reduce the risk of depression.

Meditation as a tool to manage depression

Through meditation we learn to observe our thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations without reactivity. Through meditation, the meditator is able to interrupt the unconscious stimulus/response cycle. Learning to recognize, acknowledge and let the stimuli – the thoughts and feelings go and detach from them can help break the cycle of uncontrolled reactive responses.

Having a single focus for the mind, either the breath or a physical sensation, gives you an anchor to come back to when distracting thoughts or emotions arise. Meditation creates space between stimulus and response patterning helping you respond to stressful, emotionally charged situations in new, creative and potentially healing ways. By being able to return to a grounded and centred state we are able to respond from a state of calm instead of from a place of defence or panic.

Conclusion

Depression has become a common mental condition through the world. It occurs in all ages, races, and cultures. The common causes of depression are known to be chemical imbalance, exposure to trauma, and inherited genetic dispositions. There is a growing field of response to help alleviate the consequence of depression in one’s life, work and family constellations. Psychological and psychiatric therapies, natural medicines, diet, and physical exercise are all know to help.

Born as the Earth Zen Academy (BEZA), a Zen School of the Heart, offers several free training programs related to meditation, authentic communication, and Nature Based Wisdom Teachings (NBWT) to help you or someone close to you manage the effects of depression.

References

Schimelpfening, N., (2022), The Chemistry of Depression, Very Well Mind,

https://www.verywellmind.com/the-chemistry-of-depression-1065137

Iliades, C., (2016). How Trauma can Lead to Depression. Everyday Health,

https://www.everydayhealth.com/depression/how-trauma-leads-to-depression.aspx

DeAngelis, T., (2019). The Legacy of Trauma, American Psychological Association,

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/02/legacy-

trauma#:~:text=One%20of%20the%20first%20articles,14).

Coelho, S., (2022). Cortisol and Depression: What to know, PsychCentral,

https://psychcentral.com/depression/cortisol-and-depression