Dying For Yoga – Super Creepy!!!
Ok, I understand that death-mediation is an important part of Tibetan Buddhism, and this is probably an area in which I need some help… but as a die-hard (no pun intended) sunshine and rainbows kinda girl, it’s a little bit terrifying that this is going on practically in my backyard!
This article is from the NY Times last week (sorry I’m a little late!)
“What happens to a funeral home when it’s no longer a funeral home?
For Ava Gerber, who recently bought the Robert F. Cranford Funeral Home near Fort Greene Park on DeKalb Avenue, the answer was obvious: turn it into a yoga studio.
Then, bring students to the embalming room and help them meditate on death.
“You couldn’t really do effective death meditation unless you were in a funeral home,” said Gerber, who has owned Lucky Lotus Yoga since 2005 and relocated from a location a few blocks away early this year. “Who would come to a death meditation in a regular studio?”
Early in February, during the studio’s second death meditation class, Gerber perched on a pillow in the darkened basement room, lit by a flickering candle. She reminded the class that the blood of hundreds — “maybe thousands” — of bodies had run through the room. Then, cutting through the still in staccato rhythm, she described a scene to a group of five students:
A little girl chases a ball. The girl runs onto the road. The girl dies.
Evangelos Pappas, who sat quietly throughout the class, said he was intrigued when he heard about death meditation on a previous visit to the studio.
“I showed up… not knowing what to expect, to be honest with you,” he said after his second class.
At times, the setting spooked Pappas, who works at Long Island University and does yoga for exercise. He also was skeptical, due in part to the gem-covered shrine, the offerings — which included a bowl of liver — and the chanting that followed the meditation.
A bowl of liver, YUM!
You can read the whole article here
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