Biography
Emahó was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico as a Native American to a Spanish mother and the father of the Tewa tribe. He grew up in a big family; as a young adult growing up in the rough environment of Albuquerque he observed and experienced that people were often mistreated and yet he never got bitter or angry and always saw what he later called the predicament of the others. As a young man he simply dreamed of running a restaurant like his father had – and yet life chose a far different path for him. Beginning in his early twenties, he was thrust into a profound inner transformation he neither sought nor expected. Through years of physical, mental, and spiritual events, visions, challenges and revelations came to him – not as philosophy, but as a lived process.
During his process Emahó had several encounters with people in ordinary life situations. He described it as the person being transformed out of the ordinary into the extraordinary. He could see the change in their demeanour as they were completely different from one moment to the next. One moment an ordinary person, the next moment a person with clarity in their eyes and in their whole being. He saw that in each of these encounters he received a form of help, or a message. It was as if he had been watched by Life and it was using situations and people to communicate with him.
His journey took him through poverty, prison, labor work, fatherhood and long searching through ancient wisdom traditions, Eastern spiritual lineages and Western thinkers.
He admired the writings of Alan Watts and his unconventional approach to wisdom. He appreciated the efforts of Chögyam Trungpa to convey the essence of Tibetan Buddhism to westerners and the courage of Jiddu Krishnamurti to leave the traditional path of Theosophy.
Throughout his process he received recognition from respected teachers within the Hindu, Buddhist, and Sikh traditions. His travels took him to India, Australia, and Malaysia, where he crossed paths with extraordinary individuals – among them, an Australian female shaman and a spiritual teacher from Malaysia – who provided support and wisdom.
Much of his learning took place in the dream state. He received visions and revelations as if life himself was instructing him. These events completely changed his perception of life. He called it “seeing through Life’s eyes.“
In the 1980s, after moving to California, he met Lama Tharchin Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist teacher who had just arrived in the United States and founded a monastery near Santa Cruz, where Emahó was living at the time. Under Lama Tharchin’s guidance, Emahó engaged in intensive Buddhist practices; however many unanswered questions remained.
Emahó was a relentless inquirer, always questioning, he refused to accept anything on faith and trust and looked for evidence.
He had searched as deep as he could go by himself, and just as he had reached the point where he had come to terms with not being able to find the deeper realizations he was seeking, he received an invitation to a large Tibetan Buddhist retreat in the French Alps.
This gathering was to be held under the blessing and presence of His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, a master of the Nyingma lineage and teacher of the 14th Dalai Lama.
After two days in Dilgo Khyentse’s presence, Emahó’s mind was transcended and finally shattered. He later described it by saying that, for about two hours, he heard the sound of breaking glass – and after that his mind dissolved into a vast clarity beyond concepts. From that moment, he taught directly from the heart – resting in a deep, timeless wisdom, he referred to as “The Living Word.”