Month: July 2010

On June 26 1976 Sri Chinmoy stood in front of the Statue of Liberty and meditated before 27 young men who were about to run across all of  America’s 48 states.  It was to be a journey of  8,800 miles and  for 46 days they would carry a lit torch the entire way.  It was a continuous relay run and 2 teams ran  in 12 hour shifts 24 hours a day.  America was celebrating its bicentennial that year and the mood and enthusiasm in the country was unbounded.

America is a place in which the word impossibility is unfamiliar to most lips.  It is a place in which doing, is not and cannot be replaced by trying.  To move fearlessly forward and not be intimidated by failure is an attitude that is common and accepted wherever you go in this vast beautiful country.  Sri Chinmoy himself came here in 1964 and felt that America was ripe to embrace the inner life, as it had so successfully accomplished so many things outwardly.   Running and America seemed to go hand in hand.

The Liberty Torch relay was followed in quick succession by other events and running contests.  The Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race is now the pinnacle dream of individual competition.  This year there are no Americans running the 3100, but on this day the 11 runners will feel an enthusiastic out pouring of American spirit all around them, as today is the 4th of July.  A time when America celebrates in a big way, and 3100 mile runners will find celebrate in their own unique fashion.

Stutisheel stands here holding a torch once used years ago during one of the earlier relay runs that crisscrossed over America. He once said that he always dreamed that he would like to be in America on the 4th of July.  Today marks the 7th time he has been able to say that he has done it.

If one were to add up all the mileage he has completed from his 6 previous races here, by himself he could have covered the same distance the Liberty Torch relay completed 2 times over.  Beside him the Enthusiasm Awakeners are singing the America song just for him  because he loves it so much and it touches his heart.

Sri Chinmoy: America is a young nation. It does not want to walk; it wants to run as fast as possible in order to breast the tape first.

I appreciate America for its dynamism. If you are dynamic, you run towards your goal. If you do not know where the goal is, then you may run from this side to that side. But it is better than to remain static. Americans are running. They may not be sure of the goal, but they are constantly on the move. They go to one side and run into a wall and get hurt. Then they go to another side and the goal is not there, so they get another blow. But at least they go.

The best quality in the spiritual life is not to hesitate once you know your goal. But even if you do not know your goal, it is good to run. God’s Compassion will dawn just because you are running, because you are on the move. Once you feel that your goal is not where you are, that your goal is somewhere ahead of you, then you have to run. And if you run, eventually you are bound to reach your goal.

Excerpt from The Outer Running And The Inner Running by Sri Chinmoy

Continue reading “I Can Learn To Be Everything Here”

“It is the one great school on how to be surrendered.”  For the past week Pranab has been a visitor to the race.  He has come from his home in Slovakia to support his friends, and at least for a brief while, be a part of the thing that has meant so much to him.  He has completed this race on 4 occasions and at each race he found ways to self-transcend.  Both by bettering his times each time and also growing as a spiritual person as well.

“These experiences, of knowing how to let go, and how not to be dependent on things that I want.  To be able to separate the things that should happen from the things I want to happen.  That helped me a lot with other things in my life.”

“Two years ago it got really bad and somehow I got through it.  Last year it started very soon and came back again.” It is enough for any runner just to battle the distance little alone combat health issues at the same time.  Pranab had been a fixture at this race for 4 years and last year he was running well here when a stubborn skin rash attacked him with a vengeance, and by June 26 he had to retire from the race.

“Running itself is a transformation process and this race is an embodiment of this.  You cannot really expect to run something long and not to be changed.  It is a very concentrated life.  Outer signs of self transcendence is just a number.  I do not really believe in comparing year by year.” He speaks about some of his fellow Slovaks and how much he admires what they are doing here.  Each uncovering unknown capacities and also gaining strength in other more recognizable areas of their lives.

He was able to run this race most years when Sri Chinmoy was still outwardly and integrally part of the event.  He still feels that he is deeply part of it now.  “It is his race, so how can you separate him from this.  I would not be coming here if not for him.”

“Inspiration works in mysterious ways.” He feels that the influence of the 3100 can be felt by those who are receptive, but as one who has experienced it first hand has no way of judging what it might be.  He had been thinking about doing it for years before he eventually came.  “I have been inspired by this race a lot.”  He said it touched him long before one could go daily and view the results on the internet.  Just hearing about it from others alone was enough to feel a thrill inside.

When he leaves today and heads back to Slovakia, “I am going to miss it.”  Then he laughs and adds, “But I am not going to pretend that I will be crying into my pillow.”

Complete Pranab interview

Continue reading “Running is a Transformation Process”

“Right now I am trying to get them and their shadow lined up.  There is a nice shadow that they are casting, and I am trying to get the runner and their shadow following them.  I am trying to get each runner before the angle of the light changes, and it won’t work any more.  It is changing quick. “

“In the morning, the runners are different you know. They are really open.  They tend to really have unguarded expressions.  They have honest looks on their faces.  It is definitely the best time.”

For many years Jowan has been coming to the race at all hours of the day and night.  His photography reflects the ironic world of the race in which so many things are changing rapidly and yet constantly remaining the same.  Close by you can hear his camera shooting off hundreds of pictures and its clatter mixes interestingly with the whir of traffic below us on the Grand Central.

He is patient, focused, and trying to see a glimpse of something about the race that he has not already seen in the 100’s of previous visits he has made here over the years to the race.  A single photograph is just a frozen moment of reality captured in some digital realm that we can examine, admire, and identify with.  The race is always about movement. Nothing stops, nothing slows, in some ways as each day advances towards the goal there is almost a sense of time subtly speeding up. His pictures just help us hit the pause button on the incredible world that is unfolding here.

When you look at Jowan’s pictures you feel like he has captured a brief glimpse of heaven.  These are not just slow runners ambling around the block.  There is a inner divinity here that he is somehow able to reveal in ways that our eyes cannot.  He is showing us pilgrims on an ageless quest.  With beauty, with pain, but with a timeless urgency to move on and demonstrate, that self transcendence truly does exists for a world thirsting for transformation.  He also somehow captures the spirit of the founder of the race, Sri Chinmoy, like I cannot do.

There are shots that he has taken, in which I feel, that just out of view, is Sri Chinmoy’s little red car, just about to speed into the frame and make perfection itself even more transcendent.

Jowan interview

http://gallery.srichinmoycentre.org/members/jowan/3100/2010/

Continue reading “I Am Happy That I Am Happy”

Just to be an Olympian and attend the Olympic games is a tremendous achievement.  To attain a medal of any sort places you on a lofty stage in world sports.  To win the gold medal in 4 consecutive competitions, setting an Olympic record each time, places you on the loftiest rarefied pinnacle of World sport champions.

The legendary Al Oerter was a sport figure, whose achievements in discuss competition, from 1964 when he was just 20 until his last competition in 1968 at age 32 are unlikely to be matched.  In each of those competitions he was never favored to win, and was never selected as the first man on the US Discus team.  Yet in him burned an inexhaustible spirit to transcend himself. He once said, “You die before you quit.” And, “I didn’t set out to beat the world.  I just set out to do my absolute best.” photo courtesy of http://www.aloerter.com/pages/olympian.html

He was a admirer and friend to Sri Chinmoy and this past weekend his wife Cathy visited NY to pay her respects to Sri Chinmoy’s weight lifting anniversary and also enjoy a visit to the 3100 mile race.  One morning at the Smile of the Beyond restaurant I had a chance to speak with her and she said that after her visit there she was planning to jog with the runners on the course of the 3100.

“I see the inspiration it gives.  I almost want to bow to them when I see them going.  That feat, well we can’t wrap our heads around it at all, because that is not where it is coming from.  It is coming from the heart, and a kind of inner spirit that they have.  I think Al had that spirit too.  Because he broke through all kinds of barriers.  And loved the event for just the sake of the event itself.  I think the people out there running have that same kind of passion.  Just their ability to dedicate themselves to this event has won my heart, and I applaud it. “

When she talks about what she and Al saw in Sri Chinmoy she says, “the ability to keep going.  It was the effort over a lifetime really.  Al did the same thing.  He broke all odds.  He was never the favorite, but he always came through.  I think because Sri Chinmoy and Al had this in their heart, that they were very focused on what they were doing and could push through anything.”

When asked how this influence is still felt, “It is the spirit isn’t it, and the spirit never dies.  They have left that to all of us to carry on.”

Cathy Oerter interview

Continue reading “The Spirit Never Dies”