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At the weekend I managed to complete my first cycling race of the year for Sri Chinmoy Cycling Team. (link) It was a 25 mile time trial and my time was 54.24.

Oxford Self Transcendence Races

Yesterday, we had our first 3 Mile Self Transcendence race at the Peace Mile in Cutteslowe Park, Oxford. 15 runners came on a wet and grey evening. results at Sri Chinmoy Races

Running and Vegetarian Diet

Some people question whether a vegetarian diet is compatible with a vegetarian diet. Tim Van Orden, is running on just a raw vegan diet. – Running Raw

One of the fastest growing sports is running up tower block stairs. Sounds great fun. Article at Guardian

5 years after Sierra Leone`s brutal civil war ended the Freetown Amputee Football Team gather on Aberdeen Beach to practice for an upcoming match. During the war an estimated 20,000 men, women and children had limbs hacked off by the RUF and its child soldiers.

Football has provided many of them with with new identity and a sense of purpose. They are popular figures in Freetown and have been praised by other amputees for helping to lift some of the stigma surrounding their disability.

Photos by: Nabik Daniel Hunt – Image Lounge

Since spending a week in Jamaica, New York, I have spent quite a lot of time in the The Panorama of my silence-heart cafe. 

Situated just 2 blocks away from my flat, it provides a convenient location for a cup of tea and somewhere to do a bit of work on a laptop.

The drinks menu is quite extensive, although I have only tested the teas and coffee’s. There is also a good selection of food, including salads, soup of the day and sandwiches. The soup of the day was particularly good accompanied by baguettes.

In the evening, there is often music and the cafe is thoughtfuly decorated; it gives the impression you could be in a large living room.
It’s all pretty good value, although it’s helped by the weakness of the dollar, which makes everything in the US seem half price.

I have helped Ketan design a website for the cafe which you can visit here: Panorama Cafe 

Panorama Cafe only opened fairly recently but it has already received some good reviews – Reviews of Panorama Cafe 

Organisers of the World Harmony Run in Cambridge will be attempting to break a new Guinness World Record when the World Harmony Run visits 14th May

The record will be for the largest game of Chinese Whispers.

If you would like to take part in this record for World Harmony then visit the website at World Record for Harmony 

The World Harmony Run

The World Harmony Run is a global relay aiming at creating greater friendship and harmony between different people around the world. The World Harmony Run was founded by Sri Chinmoy in 1986.

Today, in New York, the American leg of the World Harmony Run began outside the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, United Nations building. You can read about the Start of the World Harmony Run here: World Harmony Run begins in the US 

We have started a new blog about gardening.

When I was studying PPE at Oxford University, I was very keen on gardening and even thought about taking it up as a career (when I got bored reading John Stuart Mill, I would try learning Latin names of plants. My room and corridor was full of cuttings and seedlings. After finishing my degree I got a job as a gardener, at my college Lady Margaret Hall. I worked there for a year before switching to teaching economics

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Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was an intriguing and inspirational figure. In truth I wouldn’t have thought much about him, but my Spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy saw in him some very illumining qualities.

Netaji braved all
To build a Heaven
Even in hell’s despair.

– Sri Chinmoy [1]

In particular Netaji embodied great heroism and had the power to unite the Indian people

“In the name of God, in the name of by-gone generations who have welded the Indian people into one nation and in the name of the dead heroes who have bequeathed to us a tradition of heroism and self-sacrifice, we call upon the Indian people to rally around our banner and to strike for India’s freedom.”

– Netaji

There is an article here “Replaying History” by Vidagdha about her recent visit to some significant places in Netaji’s life.

at Write Spirit 

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Shane Magee has joined the writing team for our Self Development blog. Shane’s first articles included a guide to establishing a regular meditation practice. Useful tips, even for those who have been meditating a long time

Sharani offers some suggestions for increasing gratitude in our lives. Sri Chinmoy wrote many poems on Gratitude.

A gratitude-heart
Is a heavenly miracle
That is visible
Here on earth.

– Sri Chinmoy

Music I am Listening to

• Boris Purushottama Grebenshikov 
• Ranjit and Unmesh
  

Sand drawings – amazing video of woman painting with sand

Web Design 

• Pure Web Designs – The name says it all.

Other Links OT

• British English for Americans

• “BBC English – BBC English is used by many people to mean the proper pronunciation of English words, or a standard accent. Recently, though, the BBC have completely ruined this by employing people with all sorts of regional accents, including cockneys who really don’t talk proper at all mate!”

• Funny announcements made by Tube Drivers
• Tips for writing effective emails at Net Writing

Some inspiring, some not so inspiring.

The inspiring

Effective ways to get out of a negative mindset – an article by Tejvan for Sri Chinmoy Inspiration self improvement blog

Video Podcast of friend Stephen Hopson. Stephen is deaf from birth and makes his living as a motivational speaker. He has a blog Adversity University with some interesting articles.

Learning to Live by Sumangali

Life Voices – new blog of Kedar

Bob Dylan recites the Lock and Key poem by Sri Chinmoy at Priyadarshan.org

Only slightly less inspiring.

Shardul shows his age with a folk video from the 1950s (interestingly I saw an excellent film about Woodie Guthrie recently )

Not Necessarily Inspiring at All

A good reason to be vegetarian

Tommy Cooper Jokes

The Difference between Economists and non Economists at the Economics Essay blog

Music I am Listening to

• Mozart’s Requiem
• Arthada and Friends

Videos I am Watching

• Jeeves & Wooster – The complete Series. Bertie Wooster is magnificent, Jeeves is absolutely superb, but, why do all the other characters have to be so irritating?
• The Maggie – Ealing Comedy Classic

What I’m Dreaming of

Cycling heaven – Cycling Tubes to go around cities (link coming soon)

What I am doing too much of

Checking email

What I should be doing more of

Singing Spiritual Songs

Picture courtesy of Unmesh Swanson, Sri Chinmoy Centre Galleries

New Stumble account: http://tejvan.stumbleupon.com

Life Voices offers a range of interviews with people of inspiration and distinction.

In recent episode there is an interview with Mamie Mayanaki about Kyudo an ancient Martial Art form. There seems to be some shared ideas with the concept of meditation. The idea of being fully concentrated and fully aware.

It reminds me of a story from the Bhagavad Gita. There are some trainee archers and Krishna asks them what they see. The archers say various things like the target and the woods, e.t.c. But, when Sri Krishna asks Arjuna what he sees, Arjuna replies only the bullseye. Krishna was very pleased with Arjuna and it was Arjuna alone who could hit the target.

Life Voices Video Podcast 

Life Voices at Sri Chinmoy TV

Life voices is produced by Kedar Misani.

Unmesh shares some beautiful photos from his archive.

Here’s hoping 2008 is a better year than 2007 – article at self improvement blog

Some New Year’s resolutions from Priyadarshan’s blog which might help it occur – on the sunlit path with Sri Chinmoy.

Good Cop – Bad Cop – when The New Year comes.

Recent holiday in the Carribean, here’s a post about an interfaith experience at a Cathedral in Santa Domingo