Tag: Meditation

“Circumstances have brought me over for the entirety of the race.”

Nirbhasa, who is currently living in Iceland,  is a welcome presence at the 3100 mile race this year. Just as he was last year when he was actually running here for the first time.  Which, to no ones surprise, he completed in 51 days and 12 hours.

He has so much energy and enthusiasm that when you are around him you can so easily see, how, when all of this is focused on running, or for anything that matter, he can get the job done.

“I am trying to make sure that I am here every day.  A couple of times a week I am counting.  I also try and run some laps with all the runners.”

“It is really something.  When you step onto the course it is like getting on the subway tracks and connecting to the third rail.  The one that contains all the electricity.”

Nirbhasa describes that when he is on the course he has moments when the very powerful experience of last year comes back to him.  “You are on the course for 52 days.  It really sears itself into you.  It becomes part of your life.”

He hasn’t been running multi day races for that long a period.  He feels as though his soul compelled him to take part.

“For a long time I was looking at the 3100 mile race.  It was always something I always admired and  I got tremendous inspiration from the runners.  It was not necessarily something I was going to do.”

“Even when I did my first 10 day race.  There is an unofficial qualifying standard in that race for people to move on and do the 3100 mile race.  You have to do 60 miles every day.  In my first 10 day race I was hoovering around that standard.”  He was worrying he says what might happen if he did manage to do the 60 mile a day average.

“Because there is definitely part of my makeup.  That if you are qualified to do the 3100 than probably you should do it.”

“I think it is like most things in life.  Or most things in the spiritual life, or at least with me.  You are always start by doing it wrong.  You start doing a long race and you try and do it with the physical.  So then you run into all kinds of walls.  The only way you can get around all this is by going deep within.”

“Surrendering to the highest part of your being.  You realize that you have got to a place where your physical capacity just isn’t enough.  You need something else.”

“What is interesting when you get to that point.  Almost everything drops off.  Your injuries become more manageable. Tiredness and all that becomes much more of a sweet experience.”

As we are moving along we are passing through a throng of people who have just left an Eid Mubarak gathering on a nearby field.  It also too place last year.

By this time the race had become more of a heart experience, more of a soul experience.  Referring to the crowds blocking the course, “All these things I could really appreciate.  All these experiences that cropped up during the course of the race.   You feel them so much more.  You feel the essence of them so much more.”

Continue reading “July 6… Deep Within”

“It is hard.”

Baladev’s description of the race this morning is by far the simplest and most direct response you could possibly ask for.

In their own way, each of the other runners would probably echo this same sentiment.  Even the most astute observer of the race cannot really grasp the dimensions or the supreme challenge of it all.  We can never know or understand just what he and the other runners are up against here on the course of the 3100 mile race.

For even the most experienced distance runner at best can only come to some theoretical understanding of what it must be like running 18 hours a day for weeks on end.

But when it comes down to it, if you have never done it then you cannot ever really understand it.  Bask in all its subtle delights or also suffer through all its crushing agonies.

Baladev now has been running for 17 days and has completed 909 miles.  But looking back over the 7 other years he has been here it doesn’t take long to realize that he has spent more than a year of his life doing what he is doing right now.  Endlessly circling a half mile strip of concrete in Queens New York.

“Every lap is interesting.  Sometimes every step.”

When I quiz him about the difficulties of running here he says, “I feel as though I am running in a park.  My first year I did not feel that.  But since then I feel this way.”

“Sometimes people ask, how can you run around just one block?  But there are so many trees, grass, and nature.”

“Being here makes me definitely connect with my inner experiences.  Because when you are doing something very intense like this, in the same place, many many times, you can feel connected to this place.”

“I would like to be here all year.  It is hard for me when I am not here.  It is also definitely hard to be here but it  is even harder for me when I am not here.”

“After a few years whenever I came back here it started to feel like home.  There is no other place around the world where I feel like I do here.”

“I make so much progress here.”

Baladev describes how in many other difficult sports the athletes keep coming back again and again because of the satisfaction they experience when they continue to do them.

As for the 3100 mile race he says, “Guru created this.  The Supreme created this for people to do it.  There must be something special and there is something special here.”

Peace means joy;

Joy means peace.

Peace and joy

can never be separated.

Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 16, Agni Press, 1999

Continue reading “July 5… So Much Progress Here”

If Stutisheel had for some reason decided not to run around Thomas Edison High School these past 15 days, and instead headed South west.   He would have, as of this morning, nearly made it to Memphis. A distance of 890 miles.

This 46 year old Ukranian born runner has spent a lot of summers and run a lot of miles here in the United States.

Though technically he may not have spent a lot of time exploring its geographical boundaries he seems each year to be drawing closer and be more inspired by America’s inner qualities.

This morning he came dressed in an American flag outfit.  Something he has been doing regularly for nearly all the 12 summers he has run here.

Along with Ashprihanal and Sopan they perform a short skit where each portrays a different President.  Stutisheel played the part of President Kennedy.  He recited a short passage from the speech that President John Kennedy gave at his inaugural address in January of 1961.

And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

Click to Hear Play:

Play

“Somehow I find this so inspiring, and it resonates in my heart.  I hardly believe I am still running.”

“I remember that I believe Guru once said that all ultra runners serve their countries in a most special way.  I still cannot fathom what this way is but probably when a runner goes through all this hardship you have to stay more connected to your inner source.  You are praying, you are your are crying, your are invoking.  Somehow it must elevate other people also.”

“In the beginning I had a few tough days.  Since then I have been running pretty steadily.  That is my goal.  Not to have high mileage the first half of the race.  But to be steady.  So far I am very satisfied.”

“Then when the second half comes, with all its surprises.  We will see.”

“To tell the truth.  This edition of the race is very different from last years edition.  Many runners agree that this time we have much more sweetness.  Somehow there is not so much intensity.”

Like when Ashprihanal and Surasa established their world records.  Stutisheel says that Ashprihanal was so focused last year that he barely remembers anything about his experience here last year.

“This is like inner sweetness, inner feelings.  On the outer plane there is also power and determination.”

“Meditation is a source of unlimited power.   It is unimaginable.”  You cannot describe the power of it by comparing it to all the things that we normally think of as powerful in the outer world.  The inner power is not harsh or destructive.  It is all peace and harmony.  In turn this inner power manifests itself through extraordinary events like the 3100 mile race.

Continue reading “July 4…Unlimited Power of the Heart”

Last night Shamita finished up 2 weeks of running here with another good day.  She completed 62 miles and has now done 867 miles.

This morning as we run together I joke and suggest that since she has run 1,000 miles before, this current distance is Old Hat for her. (an expression used to refer to something considered uninteresting, predictable, tritely familiar, or old-fashioned.)

“Wowwww, I wouldn’t say this.” (laughs)

“It is always, always challenging.  You can never say I did this so I can do it easily again.”  Then in a more serious note she added, “it is not our work.  Every moment is because of God’s grace.”

“There are many things happening here.  What I really enjoyed the most was the thunder storm ( 2 days ago).  I was really laughing when the rain came down.  All the raindrops knocking on your head.”

“People usually don’t like it.   But I love it.  I started jumping.  All the water on the street makes you go through little lakes.”  I mention that her mileage for the day was not effected by it, while many others did up to 5 miles less.

“It was not bad weather.  We all need water by the way.  Then when the sun came out there was a most beautiful rainbow.”

Shamita says that her last 1,000 mile race took place 20 years ago.  “I took 15 days and 1 hour I think.”

“I try and do this race totally new.  Not thinking about other races or anything else.  Because when you do you also bring as well the not so nice stuff.  I really wanted to start totally new.”

“But if something is really inspiring from the old days.  I will take it from my memory, bring it forward and remember it, as good as I can.”

“What we try here is to focus on that which will give us constant joy, and aspiration.  Staying in the heart.  No matter what the experience you are having.”

“All the people are amazing.  They take care of everything.   Every single little wish, or every single problem.  I had a problem 2 days ago with my joints.  Really painful.  One day I was running totally with pain.”

“Then Dipali and some others like Bahula came up with what to do.  They know so many things.  They are so experienced.  They helped with all their wisdom.  Next day I was much much better.  This also touches your heart.  To see what a nice family we are.”

“I have to say that the race is tough.  It is really tough.  Even Ashprihanal when he passed me a few days ago said, ‘this is a tough race, a tough race.’ And he is like the champion of champions.”

“Guru said of him that running long distances was as easy as drinking water.”

“It is ups and downs.  If you have downs then even the ups are even more delightful.”

“Then all of a sudden you see Guru standing somewhere and you start to cry.   You know Guru is here.”

Continue reading “July 3… Touches Your Heart”

“People are asking me how am I doing, and how am I moving?  I tell them very well and I am also moving very well.”

“Because of my condition I cannot move very fast, but what I can do is focus on my consciousness.  So that I can do.  I can smile and be happy.”

5 days ago Volodymyr’s back was so bad he could not get up in the morning and come to the race and run.  A moment that could have easily spelled the abrupt end of his long time wish to come and run the 3100 mile race.

In the subtle way that small miracles often happen when you least expect them, Volodymyr was thrown a life line.  A consultation by Auyervadic Dr. Kumar revealed that it was his kidneys that were causing the problem and the problem was treatable, but would remain painful.

By the afternoon of his visit to the Doctor, Volodymyr was back on the track and managed to make 26 miles.

Subsequently he is now able to come back every day and walk.  Usually he makes mileage in the high 40’s.  His optimism that he might yet get back to running again a twinkling hope that he will not let extinguish.

“My kidney is not allowing me to go fast.  It is giving me pain.  I cannot go faster than I am going.  Because of this it makes me focus more on my soul.  And to try and find happiness within.”

“The pain is always there but it goes to the background and to the forefront comes out the true happiness of my soul.”

“Definitely being here is much better having this pain and this happiness here.  The pain came from my depression that I used to have.  Now it has manifested in this kidney and this is forcing me to find the true happiness inside of me.”

“I am extremely happy and grateful to be here.  Because here I am working on self healing, on self transformation.  Otherwise if I were in a different environment I would never have been able to create this experience in order to heal myself.”

“Here I am extremely happy even though my body is in extreme pain.  My mind, my vital, my heart, and my soul are truly happy that I am here.”

“So through the union of my soul, my heart, and my mind I am fixing my body.  Also with my oneness with Guru.”

“Guru is the personal aspect of God.  When I see Guru I see God.  So I here I can do this from morning until night.  As much aspiration as I have to do it.”

The most important thing in life

is not to win the race,

not even to run the race,

but to see God’s face

while sleeping, standing, and running

right in front of your own face.

Continue reading “July 2… Happiness Of My Soul”

After Yuri finished the 3100 mile race for the first time in 2013 he said, “During the race I discovered something new in this world.   The course of the 3100 mile race is the temple.  Energy circulates in it.”

“This force then penetrates the entire universe.  It purifies, it transforms, and improves it.  In a word this is progress.”

*Translation of interview by Lyalya*

He is now running for the 4th time and as he keeps improving his times he appears to be also gaining even more insight into the inner workings of something that is so vast and thorny that it can almost be incomprehensible to the regular athlete.

If Yuri is that unique blend of mystic and runner he is also fun, bright, and shockingly clear about what he perceives that is happening at this race which is in its 20th year.  He is adamant in his belief that something divine from here is also spilling out into the world as well.

“A special grace comes down from God, ” Yuri says to me this morning before we had run a block.  He says all the runners experience this who are doing the race.

When I ask him if he does not experience this grace at other times throughout the year.

“This is a special grace.  Just as there are candies that are good and then there are candies that are amazing.  Whenever the Supreme gives this grace it is always very very amazing.”

When the race is over he says for the first half year he takes his time to examine and think about what has taken place.  “For the other half of the year I am preparing myself for the next race.”

“This race becomes a life for a runner.  You cannot separate your life from the race.  It all becomes one”

“I also had a life before I started running this race but I feel that for my whole life I have been preparing for this race.  Not just one life but for many lifetimes.”

“I am now a very different person.  If you look very closely at the runners before the race and then after the race you will see that they are all totally different people.  You become more pure, more receptive, more subtle.”

“Guru is everything.  This race is part of Guru.  This is a dream of Guru.  Because of this I have many special experiences.”

Continue reading “July 1… All Becomes One”

“There are moments when I think, why am I doing this again?  But otherwise I think it was the right decision.”

A few minutes before we started running together Kaneenika had just completed 700 miles.  It happened in the early part of the morning.  Before the sun bore down and the noise of a busy city swept over the course.

At this time the weather was pleasant and still. Kaneenika was running briefly with her friend Kanala. Who both come from Slovakia and on many mornings talk cheerfully and run joyfully for a couple of laps before Kanala heads off to work.

Of course 700 miles is just one of those tiny rungs in the ladder leading up to 3100 miles which resides precariously at the top.  A challenge, that by itself 15 years ago in 2001 when Kaneenika entered her first 700 mile race, would at one time long ago, have appeared as huge.  Now it is just one early notation that indicates where she is after a little more than 11 days of running.

When I suggest that things seem to be going very well she says, “yes, but it is only day 12.”

The cloud of her race last year, if there ever really was one has now vanished as she pushes forward with energy and joy into this her 2nd attempt at running the 3100.

By all indications she is doing very well.  Not only would her time for 700 miles surpass her race time from 2001 it is also better than her time for that same distance last year.  She starts day 12, about 40 miles ahead of last year.

She says it wasn’t a simple decision to decide to run.  “I did.  I had many questions.”  (she laughs)

“I was thinking about it, but of course, I was still recovering from my injury.” (She finished the 52 days with 3014 miles…..86 miles short)

“It wasn’t really clear whether or not I could run.  Physically the point I knew I was able to do it was when I ran the Chico marathon in March. Then I was getting strong feelings that I should do it.  Everything was like leading to it.”

Kaneenika recalls a significant dream that took place in October.  The dream said, “in the next race you should take 3 breaks.  Actually the times I should take them came to me.” When it happened she was puzzled by why she was even having the dream when it still wasn’t clear that she would run.

So quite obviously this year,  “I have tried it from the first day and it really works.”

“So I think these things happened that gradually led me to the race.”

Now she faces the daily struggle of trying to complete 110 laps every day from a very appreciative perspective.

“There were evenings when it was really hard to get there.  But then it came to me that in the last race at the end I was grateful to do 80 laps.  So now when I get to 100 laps I say, what ever I get after that is great.”

Stepping not too far back from all the numbers there is something important to remember when you take a look at what Kaneenika is actually doing here this year.  The obvious courage and strength of character she is demonstrating is beyond question.

Her absolute dedication to taking on the toughest race in the world is patently obvious.  There is something else about Kaneenika though that is even more impressive.

What I see in her face as I gaze across the many photographs I have taken these past 11 days, is the look of absolute contentment she has.  An inner glow that permeates her expression with a kind of radiance, nearly every time the shutter clicks.

We may not be able to fully attribute and collect all the pertinent information on what Self Transcendence is, but in Kaneenika’s face you can see it revealed and glowing.

An expression that demonstrates just how our precious inner divinity can come forth from within and touch our outer beings.  It just takes the courage and conviction of a runner like Kaneenika to prove it to us all.

I ask Kaneenika before I go if there is a poem that is special to her this year.  Here it is.

Continue reading “June 30… Just One Smile”

“Last year I was very much a part of it.”

Sopan did not come and physically run the race here last year, but in a unique way he was a big part of Ashprihanal’s tremendous world record experience back then.

“We talked a lot every day on the phone.  But then he helped me and inspired me.  I felt I was part of the race.”

The strain and effort of Ashprihanal’s pursuit of a new world record was tremendous.  The daily phone chats that went on for sometimes hours nearly every night was a great way for Ashprihanal to find a way to sometimes decompress.

This year they need no excuse to chat and find relief from the long hard days that seem to stretch out endlessly in front of them.  The two runners have a very special bond and when you see them running side by side they carry on the kind of effortless banter that is particular to those who are the closes of friends.

This is Sopan’s 7th time at the race.  Not that he needed any particular excuse to come this year but certainly the long phone conversations that often took place deep in the New York night helped them both.   “It definitely inspired me.  It helped my training.  I could feel the energy of the race all the time with me.”

Sopan said that the moment the race was over then the energy was no longer there.  “I was on my own, kind of.”

“First of all, the reason I am here is because of the spiritual experience.  Last time when I did the race (2014).  Physically I did not do well.  But because of that I had a very profound spiritual experience.  Because I could focus only on the spiritual.  The physical did not matter anymore. (Sopan did not complete the distance)

“It made me appreciate more the spiritual side of the race.”

Sopan ran for the first time in 2005 and then came back again in 2006 and ran even faster.  He had the unique opportunity to experience Sri Chinmoy directly encouraging and inspiring the runners.  I ask him how it is for him now that Sri Chinmoy is no longer with us.

“In one way it is different and in another way it is the same.  Because I often think about him and the races I have done with him.  I can almost transport myself back in my mind.  I feel like I am back then when Guru was here.  It actually helps a lot.”

Sopan ran 59 miles yesterday and with his 10 day total of 604 mile his average is still good.  Putting the finish line square in sight, but of course there is still the issue of an additional 2500 miles in order to get there.

As for goals, Sopan says, “I just take it day by day.  Of course I want to do good, but to me it doesn’t matter.”

“Either way it is okay.  If I run good it is okay for me.  If I am not able to run good it is also okay for me.”

“Of course I would like to finish but that is not everything.”

An inner experience is the seeker’s
conscious awareness of his Immortality.

An inner experience is the seeker’s
conscious expansion of his Infinity.

An inner experience is the seeker’s
conscious fulfillment of his Eternity.

Sri Chinmoy, Fifty Freedom-Boats to one Golden Shore, part 1, Agni Press, 1974

Continue reading “June 29… Spiritual Experience”

In all the many years I have chased after Ashprihanal Aalto while he has been running a multi day race I have never ever gotten even close.  Whether it be dashing around a one mile loop in Flushing Meadow or even now while he runs the short easily accessible half mile block in Jamaica Queens.

It is not that he is unapproachable, or that he runs too fast (which is still plenty fast for me).  It is just that there is something particularly elusive if not incomprehensible about this 45 year old running phenom from Helsinki. Who will without question set a new record this summer when he completes the Self Transcendence 3100 mile race for the 14th time.

Day 10 June 28 from Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team on Vimeo.

Last summer he did something so great that it was almost unbelievable if not for the fact that every single lap been meticulously recorded when he set the new record for the 3100.

His time of 40 days and 9 hours is literally off the charts in terms of performance.  Yet lo and behold he comes back and decides to run again this year.  Though it is fair to say that he for the moment appears to be moving at a slightly more leisurely pace, at least in the Ashprihanal scheme of things.

Click to go to Ashprihanal’s Wikipedia page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashprihanal_Pekka_Aalto

“It is a very good morning.”

Ashprihanal has consented this morning for me to tag along and video him while he runs a loop.  It is his 10th day here and as of this morning he has completed a distance of 616 miles.

Now keep in mind this appears, at least at this point not to be a year when he will set a new record for time.  He is 50 miles out of first place and is currently in 4th.  Yet one thing about Ashprihanal that should be obvious, is that should he turn on the jets anything is possible.

Today though is a particularly good day for running.  It is overcast and cool.  He smiles as he points out that there is no need for sunblock.

When I ask if he had a rough start he says, “I was a little out of shape.”  He still managed 80 miles.  “I think every time is kind of a rough start.  In that way it is no big difference.”

Ashprihanal describes how just by running he and all the runners ultimately get stronger.  A kind of counter intuitive understanding of endurance sport in a way.  But clearly an observation that has proven true time and time again.

He says it happens, “slowly and steadily.  It takes some time for the body to adapt.”

Coming this year was also something he had not clearly planed for.  He describes that in recent years he has taken a year off to recover physically and mentally but was inspired to come this year because of Sanjay’s documentary he is doing on this years race.

“But here I am for the 14th time.  I will soon be the veteran.  It is nice.”

When he was still just a teenager Ashprihanal came as an exchange student from Finland and lived in Georgia.  It was then that he first got interested in hiking the long trails of the Appalachians and also the Pacific coast trail.  I ask him if he misses nature when he comes to run here.

“There is nature here and trees.” He points to the towering plane tree at that moment sheltering us from some morning sprinkles.

“It is pretty good, it could be better.  Still there are enough trees to have some shade.”

It is also the last day of school and hyper teenagers are darting up and down the sidewalks.  He said it doesn’t bother him.  “It is not too bad.  Also it is nothing new.”

Ashprihanal says that there are times when he still feels the presence of his late spiritual teacher.  “Sometimes I do and sometimes not.  But he is here always.”

“Sometimes you have good days and sometimes you have bad days.  Sometimes you are more in the heart and sometimes you are more in the mind.”

When asked why he decided ultimately to run this year.  “I don’t have to do it, but it is nice to do it.”

Continue reading “June 28… More In The Heart”

In 2004 Stutisheel first started running around Thomas Edison High school.  12 years later he is still going around and around the block each day.  It should be pointed out that he stops running when he reaches 3100 miles.

*editors note*  This does also have to occur before the end of 52 days each summer, so the major portion of the year remains without him endlessly running there.

But when you talk with Stutisheel, and more importantly when you run with him here as he takes on this sacred mission each summer. You cannot help but feel that he actually belongs to this little concrete loop.

That the DNA of himself and the sidewalk are somehow interchangeable. Pounded together perhaps from the 11 prior summers he has done only this.

Of course he and the other runners leaves for the rest of year.  Go home to many countries scattered here and there.  But for Stutisheel in particular, some deep bright portion of himself remains embedded here in the track.

Better called perhaps a place of pilgrimage or maybe just his heart’s home.

Today as we run the sun is bright, the air pleasant, in it is a great day to run.  I however will circle the block with him 2 times.  He on the other hand, if he matches his mileage from yesterday will do it 116 times.

It is day nine for Stutisheel and he says, “Each day is like a small life, or sometimes even a big life.  With discoveries, with tragedies, with drama, with joy, with fun, everything.”

Something he has been inspired by recently he says, is the understanding of the importance of an inner thrill.

Stutisheel feels that when you are in touch with this experience then nothing in front of you cannot be accomplished.  “You can go far far beyond what you can ever imagine.

“I believe this is one of the secrets that can allow you to proceed not only in this race, but in any endeavor.”

“The inner thrill,” he says is also very practical.  A few times already in this race I had pains in different places. What helped he says was the inspiration he received when listening to the Enthusiasm Awakeners one morning in particular.  “I felt an inner thrill come like a high voltage current and the pain was gone.”

Even this morning the girls sang a song that deeply touched and inspired him.

Continue reading “June 27… My Inner Thrills”