The Mankind Project & The New Warrior Training: How It Changed My Life
Can I say that my life radically changed with the help of the MKP New Warrior Training? Quite simply – Yes. Like many changes in life, when they come, they happen all at once. I had already decided to quit my dreary day job two months beforehand. My wife and I had already decided to teach Tantra together, to rent our flat in London and spend a year travelling, teaching and generally testing the water of the new flow of life that beckoned.
I’d booked the NWTA months before – in fact it had slipped to the back of my mind, then boom! It was the night before and I was packing for every possibility, thinking “maybe we’ll be asked to dig holes in the cold winter earth and sleep in them” and “maybe a marathon will be involved”!
The big day came, and I was aware more than ever of a weight I’d been carrying around for a long time. The weight spoke and said “I have to prove to myself and the world that I am a formidable man”. However, what I hadn’t reckoned on was the open, nurturing and immensely well-held space that the facilitators created up on that cold desolate farm near Hadrian’s wall. The amount of heart, love and kindness available there, made it obvious that this wasn’t a Boot Camp but a welcome to BEING A MAN! A Modern-Day Rite Of Passage, in fact!
I had the good fortune to drive up with the best three men possible – and we shared our thoughts, fears and fantasies along the 6 hour drive from London to Newcastle.
My most memorable moment? Well, there were many, but the one that confirmed to me that I was in the right place was this: the first night, when we arrived, all the staff were telling us where to go and what to do. And the experience went on a good part of that first night, through twists and turns, and for perhaps the first time I remember feeling held in the company of men. I felt that finally I could relax, because these men were leading clearly and with intention. When they spoke they often said the words that I’ll never forget: “MEN are .……” Well, if you’ve been, you’ll know. And if you haven’t, you may want to find out for yourself one day.
In all the men I met on that weekend with its rites Of Passage, I could see aspects of the power, fragility and beauty of simply being a man. It touched me deeply.
The Adventure formed part of a pivotal moment in my life, it nourished me, gave me strength and courage. An inner fathering, an inner connectedness, was fostered there. From that point I moved on from the shadows of 10 years’ office drudgery and into the light of teaching Tantra.
Just 10 days after the NWTA course had finished my wife and I were on our way to Thailand for 2 months, where I was invited (out of the blue) to co-teach a Tantra festival, a men’s group and even star in a documentary about Tantra!
This has all been a cluster of jewels in my life and MKP gave me a sense of metal in my physical and spiritual backbone that simply said to me “I can do this”. Today, 3 months later, things are still flowing. Invites to teach and travel to Estonia, Latvia, Poland, New York and Amsterdam come in, and I simply say “Yes!”
Vince H