Libertad que Ama

Practical experience — since 1993

Eduard Lazarev – Libertad que Ama (The Freedom that Loves). When we decide to exist and are born, we begin to shape our world, our universe. Even though we live in a common space, everyone perceives it in his or her own way, giving it his or her own meaning and filling it with his or her own experience. When we meet another person, we meet another universe, and we are faced with the choice of accepting it or not.

There are many such universes in our path. So, we learn how to interact and how to do it. How we do this determines our path. If we are able to open up to a new universe without losing ourselves, this experience will enrich us. We live, we integrate, we strive for wholeness with the new world, we harmonize it. To do this, we have to cleanse ourselves, and first we cleanse our consciousness. By cleansing, we clarify for ourselves our goals and objectives, and form a vector of development.

Does the stone have consciousness? This can only be checked by going through cleansing, by getting into synchronicity, by becoming aware of the stone. Does water or fire have consciousness? It is possible to see only through cleansing. This is how we come to the origins, the root causes of being, which are found in all diversity. All diversity is made up of the simple, and there are no mysteries in the world, and the complexities themselves are incapable of understanding the simple.

This is the essence of tradition, the essence of alchemy – to take apart the simple elements, the living essence, and on the foundation of this base to create further. To create our own life, our own universe, cleansed and crystallized. Tradition does not teach us to be part of it or a copy of it, it only helps us to find ourselves, where we are and where we are.

When people ask me how I approached the Native American tradition, I say that I go beyond my own universe and look at it from the other side and consider that I didn’t find it, but that I was found. Such a vision might allow us to go beyond the usual stereotypes, and then our path becomes not a road but a space.

Imagine a fruit hanging from a tree. On one hand, it is a fruit, but in its potential, it is a tree. And in order to become one and realize that in reality the fruit is a tree, it takes time, it takes conditions. We don’t even realize most of our own potential until we put it into action. So, with regard to stepping onto this path I felt something even as a child that I could not explain in words. And it all unfolded as I responded to the opportunities the world presented to me.

So, I could say that in a way I was called. And that call was that hidden potential, that huge tree that I felt I was the fruit of. No matter what one goes through and what ways one chooses to fulfill themselves, in the end it’s the whole journey from start to finish that counts. And to the question “why them,” I think the answer is: it is the way the spirit wills it (or you can pick up other synonyms – the soul). In general, everyone has beacons on his or her path, teachers that are inherent in his or her nature. Likewise, key figures and teachers appeared on my path. And to each of them I am especially grateful.

When we say, “Native American traditions,” we have to look at the essence of the word, which means indigenous people. Each indigenous people had their own ways of describing and interacting with the world. Do you think Taoism came out of something else? Or alchemy itself? So, when we use the term “Native American practices,” we focus our attention on it, but it becomes one-sided if we assume that there are some Native Americans (indigenous people) out there who have something that we don’t have. But similar traditions existed in various parts of our planet during the pagan era, including modern-day Russia. As we practiced cleansing and refined our skills, methods were born which have survived to this day. Some have been modified because of their reliance on the worldview of consciousness, while others have remained untouched.

The basis of the method I use in the “Temazkal” workshops is the desire to bring a person into a state of openness, of allowing, rather than simply giving them a certain set of tools, techniques, and sequences.

When a person stop being focused for a while, but remains attentive, his or her outlook expands. The indigenous people called it “going from the vision of a mouse to the vision of an eagle”. To do this, some things have to be let go. Stepping into the new and unexplored always requires an effort of “letting go.” But letting go is only one part. To come to harmony in the new space and in the new possibilities, we will need will and sincerity, otherwise one cannot make the world holistic, centered, and one cannot assimilate either new knowledge or new states.

Just as the four directions East, South, West, North are the foundations of our space, so Humility, Will, Sincerity and Integrity are the axes of our existence. The basic error of a person desiring renewal is to define the new space with old images and judgments. A person initially already assumes a specific result. But new is new because it cannot be described, and it takes time to find new definitions, both at the level of consciousness and at the level of bodily sensations. And this happens when we stabilize ourselves in the new space, and definitions come from action.

Eduard Lazarev, guiding name Libertad que Ama. He has been involved in the INBI Club for over 26 years, during which time he has mastered various practices and traditions of Taoism, Buddhism, Samurai, Thai massage, and Latin American shamans under the guidance of CHOM. He is the founder of the Moscow Kendo and Iaido Shogun Budo Club.

Currently, he is a representative of the INBI Club in Spain, where he conducts seminars and classes in Taoist and Native American studies. For the last 12 years he has been actively developing in the Native American tradition of The Red Path (Camino Rojo), and all these years he has been receiving direct and constant instruction from the elders of this tradition Aurelio Diaz Tekpankali, Ramon Angel, Singing Coyote. During his training, he underwent the basic initiations of the 13 Day Vision Quest, the Sun Dance, and the Star Dance. Permanent member of the Mountain Council in Sierra España.

Currently actively conducting traditional Native American Temazkal (House of Hot Stones) ceremonies in Russia and Spain.