Dear Mr. Tsutomu Ohshima,
I am writing to you because you created one of the strongest and unique moments in my life for which I am gratitude to you.
It was during the special training of 1982 in Gush Etzion – Jerusalem.
It was the preparing night practice before the Shodan test. In this lesson you did the practice you called “Gate to Heaven”, where each one of us had to confront you with Oi Zuki attack, which seemed to me completely impossible. In my turn to attack, I threw myself blindly forward. You held my shoulders and said: “Good spirit but it is not this. Do it again”.
In the second time I stood in front of you, I dared to look at your eyes. In this very moment my whole body tension began to drop and melt down, something I never ever felt before. Then I dared to look again into your eyes. Your eyes enlarged immediately and I found myself looking at an endless and lightened desert-like plain. It felt friendly and parentally-like, and I just flew inside completely calm, completely free of any weight and shape, completely abstract, completely into love. Next thing I remember is that you, satisfied, tapped my back and said: “You have done it”.
I went back into the line overwhelmed. I was sure that everyone experienced that. Because I felt that it was such a private and unique moment, I honored that and did not ask my colleagues about their experience. Years later I shared this experience with Yuan Tsur who is my beloved practice brother. Later on I talked with Eli Cohen. Then I realized that my moment was private.
In that moment of singularity you have been the presence soul and it became an inherent part of my life–memory–being. I am still going through special sessions and teach the art of coping in my desert sessions of Eco-encounter psychotherapy, as an abstract artwork of momentary reflections on movement, the endless door is always with me.
I thank you for your being and wish you happiness and health.
Yours with love,
D.M.