It’s only been a day since we found out that former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman was using campaign funds to pay legal fees. Now, we discover what Schneiderman has been doing since he resigned last year after multiple women came forward to accuse him of physical abuse. It seem that Schneiderman has been getting in touch with his spiritual side by participating in a meditation teacher training, according to NBC. The story was originally reported by Politico.
This new start was discovered when New York meditation center The Path posted a photo of Schneiderman on their Facebook page alongside a class of recently graduated teachers.
“We are SO proud to announce that we graduated two phenomenal classes of meditation teachers this weekend! All are now certified meditation teachers, and we’re looking forward to see how they’ll spread their wisdom + joy,” read the post, which has since been deleted.
The meditation center offers a $2,400, 100-hour teacher training course, according to their website.
The Path, founded by former journalist and entrepreneur Dina Kaplan, is a secular meditation center aimed at stressed out tech workers and other ambitious New York types. Like much of the recent boom in Westernized meditation entrepreneurship, The Path dispenses with many of the trappings of Eastern spirituality in favor of user-friendly experiences and slick design. In an interview in 2017, Kaplan said that she integrates multiple meditation traditions into the organization, rather than sticking to one of the major branches of Buddhist practice.
According to a spokesperson for Schneiderman, the meditation teacher training was part of his recovery from alcohol abuse. A troubled relationship with alcohol was suggested in the New Yorker article that revealed the accusations against him.
“Mr. Schneiderman has been through rehab and therapy and has been pursuing meditation practice as part of his recovery program. He’s not looking to hang up a shingle as a meditation teacher,” his spokeswoman told NBC.
After an Associated Press report yesterday revealed that Schneiderman has used nearly $340,000 in campaign funds to pay for legal expenses related to his alleged abuse, one of his accusers, Michelle Manning Barish, called on his campaign to donate the rest of their considerable funds to organizations that help victims of intimate partner violence.
Today, Manning Barish posted on Facebook about Schneiderman’s teacher training.
“This is a DISGRACE,” she wrote. “#EricSchneiderman is an untreated sexual assaulter and predator. He has no business teaching meditation. He has not even been rehabilitated yet. The Path Meditation shame on you for being so reckless and irresponsible. You are putting your female students in danger.”