A store called The Bodhi Tree is finally going into the vacant storefront on Sixth Avenue and 7th Street (396 Sixth Avenue). Pix by R. Guskind (Gowanus Lounge).

That’s a storefront I know very well. At one time, it was a nice, clean bodega that had candy and ice cream. For years, we used to stop there on our way to Teen Spirit’s Karate class at the Center for Non-Violent Education, which used to be above Save on Fifth. He used to get skiddles. Always Skiddles.

The Center for Non-Violent Education has moved to 327 Seventh Street (near Fifth Avenue) but they still offer incredible self-defense classes for kids and adults.

Two years ago, that storefront became an occupatinal therapy gym for the Rivendell School, which until last year was located on 7th between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. Teen Spirit attended The Children’s House from 1994-1997 (it later became Rivendell).

The Children’s House is/was an incredible Montessori School, which was founded by Gretchen Courage. It was sold to the Rivendell folks about ten years ago. It is still a wonderful school from what I hear and is newly located on Carroll Street near Fourth Avenue.

They used to rent from the church on 7th Street — for years and years. But recently they bought their own building.

I was excited to see that the storefront on 7th Street is becoming The Bodhi Tree, a store for items from Tibet. So far, a beautiful awning with a lovely illustration of the Bodhi tree.

Sometime during the sixth century BC a solitary, wandering ascetic named Buddhat sat
to meditate beneath a shady tree (the Bodhi tree) promising not to rise until he had
attained the ultimate knowledge of spiritual enlightenment. Thus began
Buddhism, one of the world’s great religions and pilgrimage traditions.