Tokyo Bootcamp 6/20-6/22

[Don]

This weekend will have been the third or fourth time that I have rolled out with Pickup Asia as an approach coach. This time around, something was different however. I can’t put a finger on it. I can only describe it as epic. Even as an approach coach, the weekend was a whirl of emotions. All the sets I witnessed congealed together into one amazing experience, and what a trip it was.

 

I saw one guy come to us on Thursday, sucking the very life force out the air around him. I don’t like being metaphysical/new age but it actually made me feel sick, lifeless and dead. The cool coldness of him was off setting however I saw in him myself. A man lost in the darkness of the human condition who instead of brining others up with him, would dart out, seize, and drag to his pit any and all who crossed his path. I too struggle with the absurdity of what it means to live. When this student left however, he was a literally the polar opposite of what we first saw. He had a blazing nimbus; not in the RSD “Whoooo” way, but he was emanating light in all directions. Talking with him was a pleasure as he brought you up.

 

I saw a guy who was unsatisfied with his life until this point. He was tight, clenched up-evident in his collared shirt buttoned to the very top. He was unwilling to let go, to be open to others. He had felt as if his life had already passed him by and it was now out of his hands. Plunged into the crucible and heated to an insane degree, he did not complain once. “I can’t speak Japanese!” “I don’t know the culture!” Excuses like these weren’t present. Indeed, in the forging process we need not add more impurities to add flexibility to the blade. All we needed to do was ignite his own furnace, the flame of his chance at a second living. There he could buffer out the nicks and other marks of use. His furnace now burns bright with the flames of a phoenix, a man reborn, unplugged from the Matrix and able to live his dream. The responsibility for his new life is now in his hands and he is responsible for defending and protecting it. And though the place he calls home may be across the seas, he can always hear our voice deep in his heart when times are dark. “Keep going, keep going, you are strong, keep going.”

 

And lastly I saw a guy who was already awesome but felt trapped and enslaved by the choices of women he had in his life. This was spilling over into to ever corner of his being. It was like an eagle with a vine wrapped around its leg. No matter how hard he beat his mighty wings, he could not take flight. All we did was cut the vine and watch him soar among the best. What a spectacle it was to watch!

 

On the train ride home, after everyone had parted ways, I began to cry. This is about so much more than just getting girls. The reason why I approach coach is to see what I saw in these three guys. It’s possibly the most rewarding experience in the world.

 

The reason I approach coach is because I want to give back and help the guys starting up because there were guys who helped pull me up when I was there. I want to give back to them. The weird thing is that the more I give back the more I get. I try to give my everything, and end up getting even more in return.

 

A month or two ago I was a guy who like one of the students, was searching for the light in the fucked world we live in. To help me find that, I was plunged into utter obsidian darkness, so dark that I couldn’t see my own hand in front of my face. It wasn’t until this weekend that I realized that when I am drowning in this utter darkness, it is the time when the light of my soul shines best. In this darkness, the beacon that is the light of my soul reaches farthest. I is in this state that I can light the torches of other people’s lives the best and I thank all the students for teaching me this.

 

What a ride…

 

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