July 15 How to Look Beyond

For several weeks we have been playing a little game between the two of us.  He has been counting down the days until the new Harry Potter movie was to come out.  He tells me the number of days to go and I say simply, We will go at midnight when you are finished.  This morning he greets me with a very enthusiastic, “Today.”  My answer, “let’s go now.”

The Half Blood Prince will be the 6th movie in the saga of Harry Potter and his magical friends at Hogwarts school of magic.  For Diganta Adhikari this will be his fourth installment of the Self-Transcendence 3100 Mile Race.  He is a big Harry Potter fan but most certainly he will not be going to the movie tonight or any time soon.  There is the little matter of completing 1,213 more miles.

He has been listening to all 7 of the Harry Potter books on his MP3 player over the last 2 years and is no longer certain if he has heard them all 2 or 3 times.  It is also not clear how much he really listens to the books as he runs or instead just lets the words flow through his mind to help keep his thoughts calm.  The very real journey he is taking with his physical is so difficult there can be no fault in finding some momentary simple pleasure in a world of innocent fantasy.

Image from WikipediaIf perchance he might lose track of reality then some of the words spoken by the Master of the Hogwarts school can from time to time bring his world back into perspective.  Dumbledore once said, “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”  Diganta of course is living his life very large at the moment.  He is 93 miles ahead of last years pace.  Dumbledore also said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart also be.”  To see him run here this morning on a day when millions are clamoring to go to the movies and he is instead really only thinking of putting one foot in front of the other.  When you see how lightly and patiently he runs each new lap it is clear that here at the 3100 it is unmistakable where his treasure and his heart both can be found.  They are in each new step he makes along the way.

Three runners will cross easily over the 2000 mile mark today.  One being Vlady, who for a first timer is making it all look so easy.  I am not sure how one makes running about 68 miles a day  look easy but when you smile as much as Vlady does, when you can still laugh, and play hide and seek behind trees after running for 31 straight days than Vlady seems to already know some of the precious secrets of conquering the course.

There are some very brief moments of negotiation which go on this morning.  Suprabha comes and asks when the bus is coming.  This is at first greeted with much curiosity.  She has been told that a bus load of tourists will show up some time to day to watch the race.  Rupantar is wondering where to put up the bleachers and how much to charge for admission.

Diganta is quick to correct me when for some reason I mention that he is here for 16 hours a day and how can he be thinking about going to see Harry Potter.  He says, “actually it is more like 17 and 3/4.”  He tells me that  Harry Potter has accompanied him for all of last year’s race and for much of this year as well.  He says, “it is not only him, it is the whole story and all the people.  The whole thing.  It is not only about Harry Potter.”

I  ask him what a fictional school for wizards in Scotland has to do with the streets of New York he must know all too well by now.  He at first seems puzzled by this and then says, “Maybe it is because they have so little in common, that is so fascinating about it.  It is a totally different world.  So it is taking me on a trip to this totally different magical world.  Maybe that is the fascinating thing about it.”  It seems clear that this fantasy world is for him a way of distracting him, from and through, some of the rough parts of the race.

I ask him what compels him to come back here each year and he is frank in saying he doesn’t completely understand why he comes back each year.  He says, ” your are going through a spiritual transformation.  You are learning a lot of things about yourself.”  He says for himself he has learned a lot about how the mind works.  “You come to learn how to deal with your mind.  How to look beyond.”

He says when he returns to his regular life he does look at the world differently but then he says, “With time, it kind of wears off.  Maybe that is why we have to come back every year. Definitely there is a big change.  You are looking at the world like a place of paradise instead of this place and what you are undergoing here.  You look at the world positively.  You appreciate normal life much more than before.  There is somehow a different quality to everything.”

Last year he attempted unsuccessfully to grow flowers along the course and this year he planted some.  His idea was taken up and enhanced by Parvati’s group who now have planted many many more all around the course.  He says, “I think everybody is really liking them and enjoying them.  You are not having the feeling so much that you are on this concrete desert.  There is this life and beauty added to it.  The flowers are also changing every day.  There are new blossoms happening.  There is a lot of newness.  It is not the same every day.  There is always something happening something growing.  That is very beautiful.”

I ask him about what goes through his thoughts when it comes to deciding whether or not he should come back.  He said of last year, “I really had the feeling if I do it again I will know it. It is not like I am deciding if I am going to do it or not.  It is really an inner feeling that I will do it.  It is not like I am deciding if I am going to do it or not. I just got a feeling and I said okay, I am doing it again.”

When it comes to keeping track of his miles he says that he tries to keep those thoughts in the back of his mind.  “I am more trying to focus on every day.  Trying to get through every day as good as I can.  You cannot plan two months of running.  It is impossible.”  He says there are times when he can get concerned by the race but then the realization comes to him how pointless it is to be bothered by it.  He feels that is a useless game to be caught in and instead he goes back to,”doing what you do, and what you can do.  Then there are days when you get extra laps and you are happy.  In the end you will get whatever you get and I will be happy with whatever I get.”  He says also that he is definitely trying to transcend his best time.  But adds, “it is not so much in my control.  You have to take it like it is all grace.”  He says that without grace and receptivity he does not know how else he and the other runners can possibly do this.

I ask him if he has had any particular experiences that have happened to him that stand out.  He says it is more like an accumulation of experience that builds over the many miles and days here that draws him deeper and deeper.  “It is like an incredible experience.”  He is amazed that at times when the going becomes particularly difficult it all can change for the better, almost in an instant.    “Problems just disappear and you are experience a victory, a transcendence.  Which are very powerful and very encouraging.”  Diganta interview

Later Diganta will tell me how much he appreciates Kodanda and the music he offers the runners for hours most days at the course.  He said that he notices that even others coming by appreciate his music and will just stop when they see him.  “I was enjoying to see how Kodanda was dealing with the people.”  He says for himself, when strangers approach, he is most often reserved.  “We do not let them really come near us. In his case it is totally different.  You really feel what a big heart he has.  He just takes these strangers inside his heart.  That is so beautiful to see.”

Purna-Samarpan comes to me and tells me that he had an interesting experience yesterday.  The two old dead Maple trees were at last removed on the 168 side of the course.  They were taken down and he was almost taken down as well.  A man with a chain saw was not paying attention and one of the trees landed nearly a meter away from him.  He was not bothered by it, but the one who so carelessly cut the tree down, was yelled at by his boss.

Parvati’s group