GERARDO MAZA : A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

After exploring consciousness through drugs and almost getting shot, I went to the Brooklyn Library and got out a book on the life of the Buddha and a book of poetry by Lao Tzu. I then began to practice Zen at the center of Zen master Seung Sahn in Manhattan. This was around nineteen eighty, I was sixteen. I had begun playing music about five years earlier and was surrounded by artistic people, beginning with my father, Fernando Maza, who is a painter, and my Mother, Anne Twitty a writer and translator. My father was a lover of jazz and my mother a lover of world music. Among others, there were musical uncles, cousins and friends.
When I was sixteen I remember accompanying Zen master Seung Sahn to the airport on the subway and getting guidance on music, martial arts and other questions I had at the time. I did numerous retreats and lived for six months at the Zen center after having graduated from high school and breaking up with my girlfriend. Later on I would live for two and a half years in a Zen temple after I moved to Hawaii in 1986.

Stories of the forest. Around 17 to 19 years of age.

When I used to visit or spend time in Mallorca Spain, one of my favorite places to go was a forest near an old Moorish look out tower along the coast line. This was about a mile or more away from civilization. On one occasion I and a girl friend spent the night out there and dropped some acid around 530 am. At one point we began to communicate using animal sounds. The thing was that even though there no words, these sounds communicated something that had their own inherent meaning, a complete expression in emotional intelligence. Later we sat on cliffs over the ocean gazing at each other for hours; it was as if we had been there for thousands of years and I experienced seeing my partner as form that was even pre human.
Another time I did a three day solo Zen retreat with a formal schedule at this same location. I sat, bowed and chanted under a pine tree from about 4 am to about 9pm. By the third day my mind was starting to have some wild fantasies. The trees were swaying in the wind and I began to fear that one of them would fall over and crush me and then I kept thinking that there was a pyromaniac nearby who was going to set fire to the forest. By the end of the retreat I really began to see how crazy I really was and as I walked out of the forest I was laughing aloud at myself, if anyone had seen me they would have thought I was a real nut.

During my time in New York City I also trained with and learned from a number of individuals in music, martial arts, shamanism, and special energy. Some of my teachers were Grandmaster Ron Taganshi who was a Zen monk and master of a number of martial arts, American Indian medicine man Turtle Heart, world renowned Brazilian percussionist Nana Vasconcelos and Morrocan Sufi shaman Jebran Sebnat.
In 1985 I lived in Paris for a year with my father, before moving to Hawaii. There I again connected with Zen master Seung Sahn's school and I took the five precepts of initiation. I also met Ji kwang Dae Poep Sa nim a lay Zen teacher who was teaching with Soen Sa Nim in Europe at the time. When she heard that my grandmother lived in Hawaii she invited me to live at her temple there where I could get work, continue my practice and be near my grandmother . I moved to Hawaii in 1986 and took dharma teacher precepts in 1988.

In 1989 I trained in Qi Gong with Eric Ono, the husband of Taoist master Lily Sue, for about a year and a half. The energy work of Qi Gong was something I had a natural affinity for and I had had experiences with it through Zen master Seung Sahn who taught Sun Yu (Zen Wind). These were breathing exercises he developed based on ancient Taoist practices to help the meditator develop a strong center. I had also learned and experienced special energy methods of spontaneous movement and sometimes vocalizations from my mother who had learned them from a Japanese teacher named Kishi. The Kwan Um Zen school also incorporated these spontaneous shamanic type practices during some of their Kwan sae um bo sal (Kwan Yin) chanting retreats.

Later, while studying with Eric Ono, I met a Chinese Qi Gong master named Doctor Yang Xing and did a couple of workshops with him. He was working with exactly the same energy, except his methods were a little different. Sometimes he would just sit in a hall full of people and talk in Chinese. Nobody understood what he was saying but people began having uncontrollable movement. I was one of them, I fell off my seat and began rolling around on the floor. I was open to the energy, but of course if I had wanted to, I could have stopped it by not flowing with it.

Later on in the late nineties I experienced very similar things but through the form of the whirling of the Sufi dervishes, and in 2005 I began to attend some of the ecstatic dance workshops of Vinn Marti and one of his teachers in a approach he created called Soul Motion. For me these are practices of surrender to the energy of the divine, of trusting and turning over your body, spirit and mind into the care of a higher power.
Like still meditation, these practices can bring one into a deep communion with one's source and will inevitably work out many of the tensions and energy blockages that one may be carrying around yet be unaware of.

In the early nineties I moved away from the Zen a little and began to practice and do retreats and empowerments in Tibetan Buddhism and Hawaiian shamanism with teachers such as Bokar Rimpoche and Serge Kahili King. I also began to record my first album "Rainforest Awakening". I was soon married and my son was born in 1992. In 1995 my marriage was going through much difficulty and I separated from my wife and child; this would eventually end in divorce in 1999. At first I stayed with an old Zen friend for about half a year.

This was a very difficult time for me. One of Seung Sahn Soen Sa Nim's Zen Masters, Dae Gak Su Nim (Bob Gunther), spent a week with us and did a short retreat. At the time a part of his practice was to do 1000 prostrations a day and as I was in need of some strong medicine, I began to do the same and ended up continuing on my own for about four months. During his stay Dae Gak su nim asked me a Kong an having to do with what is love? I don't know if he had said it, but something was telling me that my path was the Path of Love.

Shortly after this, I was introduced to an Al Jerrahi Sufi teacher from Mexico. I took hand and was initiated into the order of Sufis known as the Halveti Jerrahis. This order was begun by the Pir Nuredin Jerrahi in Turkey. This particular order was planted in the west by Shaykh Musafer Al Jerrahi into the fertile heart of Shaykh Nur Al Anwar Al Jerrahi, a westerner by the name of Lex Hixon, a disciple and recognized teacher in a number of mystical traditions. He was also an author of a number of books and the radio show host of "In the Spirit." I felt the strong need for community and found it in this group now led by two women Shaykhas or masters, one in New York city, Shaykha Fariha and one in Mexico city, Shaykha Amina Teslima.
We observed Ramadan, recited and studied the Koran and did the salat or five daily prayers. We also spent much time doing dhikr (remembrance of god), chanting loudly together, singing mystical hymns as well as silent remembrance and contemplation and whirling. We also paid a lot of attention to dreams as often this is a way in which Allah would bring teachings to the dreamer that were often teachings for the whole community. I had many mystical dreams during the five and a half years that I gave myself fully to this way of life.

As an example I share this next dream.
At one point I had begun to do 5000 repetitions of the name of Allah each day. About three days later I had a dream in which I was conscious of myself sleeping in my bed. Someone was at the door so I got up and went to the door. When I opened it, I found a person who I could feel was attacking me, and their power was way more than what I could even begin to withstand. At that moment I began to chant Allah in almost a belly shout and with each Allah I was swinging my arms like a samurai with an invisible sword. Within moments I had cut through the duality of the situation, nothing was there, only Allah.
This dream was interpreted as a sign that my new endeavor was accepted or blessed by Allah ( god).

A similar type of dream would be awaited after taking hand in the order as a sign that one's initiation was accepted or blessed. At that time I dreamt of Shaykh Nur (Lex Hixon), a man who I had never met, but when you have that kind of dream there is no doubt as to what it is about. The funny thing is that during part of this time I had also been attending a Lutheran church where I was baptized by an inspirational pastor named Doug Olson. Part of my experience there was a eighteen month
bethel class on the new testament that Doug taught in a unique experiential way. In a Christian dream, I was crying very deeply and I heard a voice saying" I died for you." As I awoke, my eyes full of tears, its profound simplicity is what moved me. In Islam Jesus is highly revered though his story is told a little differently. He is associated with the path of ascent. One thing I like to remember is what the Christian brothers of the desert use to say when they would greet each other on their journeys. "May you die before you die, and resurrect before you resurrect .

This was all a part of the Path of Love.

Whereas Zen was about the Hara, also known as the lower Dan tien, or tan jan ho(energy garden) an energy center where Zen master Seung Sahn would always say to keep one's mind, the Sufi path was all about the heart, the Path of Love where one would experience La Ilaha Il Allah, (There is no reality apart from the one reality that is Allah) and in the same breath Muhammad Rusulullah in which one recognizes that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, the insan kamil or perfect humanity. One would recognize this in one's heart as a divine spark, a closeness that is closer than close.
After about five years, in 2000, I began to retreat from the Sufi community and return to my Zen roots with new perspectives and wisdom. I had now gone through a difficult divorce and ended up being the sole guardian for my 8 year old son even though full joint custody had been given.

I felt a strong pull to the martial arts and chi kung to go along- side the Zen practice. I began to bring together my knowledge of various approaches to try and find something new that was uniquely my own. I also had become aware of Bill Harris and the Holosync program which I began use as a tool to enhance and empower my spiritual growth alongside the various other approaches that I was undertaking. I learned about web design and created this website Earth Wave productions to create a community focused on creativity and spirituality and, in the process, to help market my recordings.

I soon began to train diligently in the Universal Tao system taught by Master Mantak Chia. What I liked about his approach was that the body really becomes the temple of transformational alchemy. There was still great emphasis on the hara and being grounded and rooted to the earth and at the same time there is much work with the heart, the organs, the meridians, the brain, the bones, the tendons, and numerous other energy channels of the physical, energy and spirit bodies. The sexual and martial elements were there, and I felt that getting touch with these various energies and drives was important in coming closer to having a fuller and more complete expression as a human being.
I have also been doing some training with a Baghua master Christopher Lee Matsuo, who is rooted in the Tibetan Bon traditions and the Japanese Shingong Buddhist esoteric path as well as the Chinese Taoist ways. He is both a martial artist and a healer. To know the animal side of one's enlightened nature as well as the the human and divine sides. Among the various martial and energetic approaches I am now doing is the art of Zujitsu Ryu an evolving martial arts system based on various fighting arts and using unique methods that employ music, rhythm and continuous movement in the development of each individuals unique warrior dance. Created by grandmaster Chaka Zulu, this system focuses on the animal level of enlightenment and is geared toward self defense.

Through Bill Harris I have also come to Gempo Roshi, Diane Hamilton and and many other fine teachers who are working together with Ken Wilber on the Integral approach. The interviews that Bill did with these teachers in the free online "On Tolle" course where very inspirational. . The whole integral map is a real gift in helping one to see clearly how things fit together and as I begin to incorporate some of these teachings into my practice I feel that I have found some great new tools to assist in the great work of life and death.

Aloha to all you fellow travelers.
Peace and Love
Gerardo