Dispatches from the Cremation Ground: Comfort, Discomfort, and Surrender in Practice

Modern yoga has put forward a vision of the whole human being that revolves around comfort, ease, freedom from pain, and the healing of trauma. Yet in many cultures, what we call discomfort is actively sought out as a portal to the state of spiritual revelation. In fact, almost all traditional rituals that lead to the revelatory state of trance involve deliberate discomfort or some form of ritually induced trauma. In this episode, we journey to what can be a very uncomfortable place — the cremation ground — to discuss notions of comfort and discomfort, death, and surrender in practice. And along the way we find that true comfort may not always be found where we normally think it is. Support the show