In Chongqing, a city in southwestern China, women are participating in a unique meditation ritual where they lie in shallow graves to cope with the emotional aftermath of divorce.
The ritual involves the women sleeping in the graves with only a thin layer of plastic separating them from the earth.
According to the founder of this meditation method, Liu Taijie, the goal is to help the women experience a sense of catharsis by symbolically facing death. Liu, who has gone through a divorce herself, says, "When a person is desperate, he or she could almost feel they’re near death. By lying in the grave, my students could try to experience death."
Liu believes this experience will remind the women that they still have much to accomplish in life and encourage them to move forward, leaving the past behind. She adds, "This will remind them that they have not done many things in their life and that they need to forget about the past and start a new life."
Liu's motivation stems from her own struggles with depression and hardship following her divorce. She recalls having thoughts of suicide during that time and hopes her meditation technique will help other women avoid similar feelings of desperation.
Liu emphasizes the importance of women relying on themselves and achieving their own goals, saying, "Failure is not scary. I want all the divorced women to live their own lives and to achieve their own goals. Women must rely on themselves and be our own Queen."
The recovered account cited reporting by Tuko.
