But, over Christmas, we were in a popular holiday resort, Greece. For New Year’s Eve, we lost our peaceful function hall to a New Year’s party. Our meditation group squeezed into an upper story room with the party down below.

***

Throughout the New Year evening we had meditations and plays – a mixture of the humorous and soulful – hopeful of a bright future after the tumultuous year of 2016. The final meditation was 11.30pm to midnight. Almost on cue, the party below got into full swing, with the volume raised to full celebration mood. Rather than the ethereal silence of the midnight calm, stale cigarette smoke seeped into the room.

With a 20 minute break before the final meditation, I calculate a better meditation may be had in my isolated hotel room – away from the party noise and smoke. I weigh up the dilemma with some friends, but they don’t share my careful calculations, seemingly enjoying the challenge.
Their infectious faith and enthusiasm for meditation, whatever the external circumstances, over-rides the dry calculations of my mind. I give up rational arguments and sit down in my meditation chair to face the music.

With 30 minutes of meditation to go, it was decided (by democratic vote in honour of Greece), that we would play Guru’s organ music at full volume.

The power and intensity of Sri Chinmoy’s organ music breaks all the rules of what meditation music is or should be, but with a definitive other-worldly, celestial quality. The thunder of notes imbued with a capacity to break the ego’s shell. Whether reality or imagination, it gives a brief glimpse of the universal cosmos – the raw power of creation. The battle of sounds, an unexplained joy. Time passes with unearthly speed; this parallel universe intoxicating, but all too fleeting. The organ crescendos to a finish, a momentary silence, and then our Invocation to bring in the New Year.

It is the yin and yang of the universe in one conference hall. The voluminous disturbance pressing a unique meditative experience.

It is easy to surrender to outer disturbance and seek sanctuary in lone retreat. But, it can be surprising what provides a springboard to seek the Beyond.

Related

• Meditation in the rain
• Meditation – self-effort and grace (video)

With less outer distractions and the inspiration of Aspiration Ground, I try to take the opportunity to meditate more than usual.

The first few days it rained almost continuously. When in rains in New York, it can keep going for 24 hours without stopping. I like meditating outside in the rain (so long as you have a waterproof cover to keep dry). The sound of rain pouring down the sides of the canvas cover is quite peaceful.

On Saturday morning, I had agreed to cycle at a two mile race to honour Sri Chinmoy on the weekend of his mahasamadhi. So I wrapped up and cycled to Flushing Meadow. It was cold and wet, but worth going.

In New York, I don’t worry too much about meditation technique at all; there is an easier flow of meditation.

Coming back to the UK, you are conscious that on your own, in your own home, it is a little more difficult. When it is more difficult, I try a few different exercises to try and recapture the feeling of meditation.  I wrote an article at Write Spirit on some personal meditation techniques

When I was young, I didn’t feel I was a gifted athlete. In fact, as mentioned, I came last in a cross country running race. After coming last, I “retired” and decided my genetics for sporting events must be very poor.  To be fair, my parents were not exactly sub three hour marathon runners.

But, 20 years later, and after winning the National Hill Climb Championship, many might have assumed I had very lucky sporting genetics. But, I’m not sure, what to make of the role of genetics.

I do feel that meditation and a spirituality can have a positive impact on sporting performance. I cannot quantify the impact, but it does make some kind of difference. I certainly believe there is more to potential achievement than the pre-determination of genetic ability. Whether you meditate or not, even great personal faith and inner belief can have a positive impact.

Is a poet born or made?

There is an old saying that “a poet is born not made”. But, Sri Aurobindo disagreed with this statement, saying if you practise yoga you can develop artistic capacities in any field. Many of his own devotees took up poetry and became quite accomplished. This is an extract from one of Sri Aurobindo’s wonderful letters to a sadhak.

“It has always been supposed since the infancy of the human race that while a verse-maker can be made or self-made, a poet cannot. “Poeta nascitur non fit”, a poet is born not made, is the dictum that has come down through the centuries and millenniums and was thundered into my ears by the first pages of my Latin Grammar. The facts of literary history seem to justify this stern saying. But here in Pondicherry we have tried, not to manufacture poets, but to give them birth, a spiritual, not a physical birth into the body.” CWSA 27

Sri Chinmoy would also agree with the idea that through prayer and meditation, you can develop hitherto unknown capacities.

“It is said that poets are born and not made. Unfortunately, I do not and cannot subscribe to this view. There are many, many poets I have seen in my lifetime who were not born as poets but, by virtue of their hearts’ climbing cries and one-pointed, dedicated lives, have become excellent poets. So, as it is true that poets are born, even so, it is equally true that poets can be made.” (Poetry, Poem, Poet)

Sri Chinmoy wrote poems from a very early age, you could say he was a born poet.  But, there were some activities he only took up later in life. In 1974, aged 43, he started to paint – self-taught using his own intuitive style. In 1978, he took up long-distance running – completing several marathons and a few ultra events. In 1985, aged 54, he took up weightlifting – despite the fact he didn’t particularly feel any affinity to weightlifting – he just felt an inner command to try this new venture. When he later lifted very heavy weights, he attributed it to the Grace of God. (See: Inspiration Lifts)

Great spiritual Masters like Sri Aurobindo and Sri Chinmoy have a powerful capacity to meditate very deeply; it gives a unique concentration and inner capacity. In our cases, our efforts at meditation may seem very feeble – 30 minutes without thinking what to have for lunch can feel like an achievement. I don’t feel it is a powerful meditation before a race that makes a difference. But, approaching sport, and indeed any activity, with a spiritual perspective can help us to transcend the limited capacities of the mind and body.

***

The only thing is 16 years of meditation and spiritual practise have, as of yet, failed to produce any poetry. I’ve learnt to appreciate poetry – especially psychic and spiritual poetry. Appreciation is an important first step; there is an aspiration to express some ideas in poetry, but it hasn’t yet percolated from the poetry world through the mind to the fingertips. Maybe meditation has helped my cycling, but modern life doesn’t seem conducive to learning the ancient art of poetry. I feel I would need more patience. Still everything is possible.

Before driving, I have a short meditation. Sri Chinmoy advised meditating for a minute for protection from accidents. I often find that this one minute of meditation can be very useful for remembering something I have forgotten. When you have a big event, you can get a little stressed and start to ‘rush’ When you start to rush, you can forget things. When you start to worry you might be late, you rush a little more. But, then you forget something important, and it is a real problem.

This one minute of meditation can be tempting to skip. But, last night it saved me forgetting an important file with all the previous results in. If you get somewhere a minute later, it never matters, but if you travel all the way and have to come back, that takes a long time. So the moral of the story, is meditate, clear your mind, and just maybe something from within will prompt you to remember something important. It has happened many times to me.

Sri Chinmoy Races and runners ready to go.

Cutteslowe Park is very nice in May and June.

After the race, I had to collate all the results and try and work out the Grand Prix standings. I don’t like keeping people waiting, but to be honest I could have done with another minute meditation or something to help compute so many stats. Anyway, they are good friendly races and people seem to enjoy the low-key, low-tech nature of races. Thanks to Garga (Bristol) and Amalendu (Australia) who came to help us out.

Related

• Oxford Races

It is a great boon to have a room just for meditation. An additional bonus is that it makes me go outside, even in coldest winter. Often I go out to meditate at night and see a beautiful moon, it is like on the way to your meditation, you gain a brief glimpse of the Higher worlds – something untainted by the problems of this world.

Staying indoors in the comfort of a centrally heated house, you miss nature’s free show. In the morning meditation, it is a cold journey to walk into the below freezing garden and only slightly warmer meditation room but, as ample compensation, I often eye out of the corner of my eye birds flying through the garden or least chirping noisily in the background. Ideally, I would be fully concentrated on the meditation to not notice the birds, but the feeling of meditating with nature all around is a good experience. I have put up a seed feeder near the meditation window so that I can attract more birds into the garden. When I have finished a meditation, I look quietly to see if the birds are coming for the seeds – this informal bird-watching is a form of meditation in its own right.

From my bedroom window, at the front of the house, I used to see birds land on a beautiful tree every morning in my neighbours garden. But, the tree was recently cut down to make room for a concrete driveway. I was sad to see this perfect perch for birds suddenly disappear to the council tip. It made me realise how few trees there are in people’s front gardens. As I look down the street, I realise we have mostly chosen the convenience of a car park in our former front gardens rather than keeping gardens to attract nature. This has inspired me to buy quite a few trees to plant in both my front and back gardens. I have planted several one foot Silver birches, Prunus and other native wildlife trees. Hopefully, when I’m an old man and spend even more time looking out of the window, there will be some well-developed trees to act as resting places for the birds I love to see.

It also makes me feel just a little bit of a rebel – to be planting trees when all around I see more building works and smart concrete being laid over former gardens.

Soul-Birds

Perhaps birds are so close to my heart because Sri Chinmoy drew so many “Soul-birds”. These delightful free spirits capture the essence of the freedom and joy of birds. It also reminds us of our own inner soul-bird spirit which seeks to escape the limitations of the world and enjoy the unlimited freedom of the Beyond. It is one of the goals of meditation, to feel this soul freedom of the birds.

In my meditation room, I have a few soul-bird paintings by Sri Chinmoy, they are a great complement to the real birds flying out of the window.

The outer bird
We try to feed
Lovingly.

The inner bird
Feeds us
Compassionately and self-givingly.

– Sri Chinmoy

Related

• Soul-birds by Sri Chinmoy
• Sri Chinmoy Art
• Aphorism by Sri Chinmoy, ST, # 39,652, 39,653

One of the things Sri Chinmoy mentioned was an exercise of Japa. On the first day, the seeker should repeat the mantra “Supreme” 500 times. Then on the next day, increase to 600 times.

For a week, you would repeat this progression – increasing to 1,200 times, then the following week go back down to 500. Then after the first two weeks, you would repeat the whole process to make a month of mantra.

For me, it was basically four weeks with a daily discipline of repeating a mantra a certain number of times.

At first, it felt like a gigantic effort to repeat a mantra 500 times. It seemed to take a long time, and my restless mind wasn’t used to such a simple task.

But, I persevered, and after four weeks felt quite pleased to have achieved this mini-target. After the four weeks, I felt like the mantra had cleared something in my mind; it was a good preparation for meditation. But, despite the benefit, I didn’t manage to do it again for several years.

Later, when giving meditation classes, I would often mention this japa exercise to seekers – saying they would get a great benefit from trying it out. Eventually after saying this for several years, I thought I ought to practise what I preached, and I did it a second time. That’s the wonderful thing about giving meditation classes, it reminds you to practise yourself.

***

Sometime last year, progress in meditation felt quite slow. Outwardly it was a tough time – not helped by the grey dreary weather that can hang around the British Isles in late November. Meditation and the spiritual life wasn’t giving as much joy, as I would like. But, at the same time, I didn’t feel any inclination to waste time watching some superficial TV or something like that. I wouldn’t say I was in no man’s land, but it was one of those times, when you have to chug through and wait for brighter skies.

What I really craved was something easy, simple, and meditative – but without the effort of real meditation! I was drawn to japa and even bought some japa beads to help count.

The interesting thing about japa is that at first it can feel like hardwork. But, once you get into a daily rhythm it creates its own inner flow. I heard someone say – Sri Chinmoy described it a little like a dynamo – it takes a lot of effort to get the dynamo moving, but once it picks up momentum, it requires much less effort to keep the energy going.

I liked the mindlessness of japa. Though, mindlessness is perhaps an inadequate word. A better description is simplicity; a sense of quietly spending time in spiritual pursuit, with no pressure, but a sense of regaining some forward momentum. If I wasn’t running in top gear, at least I wasn’t going backwards. The japa was a welcome part of the day. A chance to unwind, and get into a good groove.

After a few months of getting into japa, I took my japa beads on the Christmas trip. I thought that if I got a moment to myself (I wouldn’t do japa in presence of others), I can keep the practise going. At the time, I couldn’t imagine a day without japa. But, the funny thing is that when I tried on the first day, I felt no inspiration, no energy and gave up after a paltry 15 repetitions. There was so much good energy on the Christmas Trip, japa seemed unnecessary.

If you read Sri Chinmoy’s published books, he does talk about japa – but it definitely isn’t the most prominent aspect of the path. In fact, there is one video, where Sri Chinmoy was asked on live TV, and Sri Chinmoy replied that ‘Japa was redundant on our path of love, devotion and surrender’ (Here I am paraphrasing from my own memory.)

Yet, interestingly at other times, Sri Chinmoy has talked about the spiritual benefits of japa, suggesting it can be very beneficial.

“But if you want to repeat the name of the Supreme most soulfully, then it will definitely increase your capacity for concentration, and deep, soulful meditation.”

– Sri Chinmoy [1]

The other interesting thing is to learn that Sri Chinmoy himself went through periods of doing quite serious japa. Repeating the “Supreme” mantra himself and asking disciples to build many different kinds of counting devices. I find this very inspiring. It is not that Sri Chinmoy needed to practise japa. But, for whatever inner reason, he wanted to quietly practise this particular spiritual discipline.

This is just my feeling – japa is certainly not essential on the path, but it can be helpful if a disciple feels drawn towards it. Another thing to mention – is the importance of balance in the spiritual life. In some of Sri Chinmoy’s writings, he mentioned that in India, he knew of some unbalanced seekers who repeated millions of times “I am God” but they ended up going crazy.

A very important thing in the spiritual life is balance, and not going to either extremes. So the benefit of japa may vary depending on different seekers and their stage of spiritual evolution. Perhaps that is why in a more public setting, Sri Chinmoy did not particularly encourage it, but on other occasions, with students who have been practising meditation for a long time – he was more encouraging.

Sometimes, we can’t meditate for a particularly long time, but we want some effective path to increase / maintain our spiritual intensity.

“Japa is bound to bring purity into your system. But each time you do japa, you have to feel the significance of the word you are repeating. Otherwise it will become mechanical and meaningless.”

– Sri Chinmoy [2]

I always try to be soulful when repeating japa, but sometimes, even if not particularly soulful, I can get joy that, at least, I’m not wasting my time.

If I was doing japa rather than give meditation classes, or put up posters, I feel I would be doing the wrong thing. But, also I’ve grown to get a benefit from japa – especially in the greyest month of November!

Which mantra?

I believe Sri Chinmoy once said, often Western seekers feel Sanskrit mantras are the best, because they don’t have as much faith in the sacredness of the English language. But, Sri Chinmoy says that “Supreme” is the best mantra. But, chanting “AUM” is also excellent.

If you want a mantra,
Then “Supreme”
Is by far the best mantra.

– Sri Chinmoy, Seventy-Seven Thousand Service-Trees, Part 14, Agni Press, 1999

I like both. I often do Supreme quickly for a higher number of counts, then if inspired do AUM slowly.

Speed of mantra

Again there is no hard and fast rule about the speed of mantra. Sri Chinmoy says that both fast and slow have different benefits. Repeating a mantra fast is easier and enables a greater number of repetitions – and gives quicker benefits. Repeating a mantra soulfully and slower can give a deeper benefit, but it requires greater soulfulness and concentration.

Sometimes, I try repeat slowly, but if I notice random thoughts appearing, I speed up to get rid of them.

Related

Benefits of Japa

“When we meditate, what we actually do is enter into a vacant, calm, still, silent mind. We go deep within and approach our true existence, which is our soul. When we live in the soul, we feel that we are actually meditating spontaneously”

– Sri Chinmoy

I have been meditating for several years and it is one of the most enjoyable activities I do.

I learnt to meditate as a student of Sri Chinmoy, which emphasizes meditating on the spiritual heart.

I wrote an article on the benefits of meditation. here at Pick the Brain

• Prisoners benefit from meditation at BBC
• Meditation mapped in monks
• Benefits of Meditation at Write Spirit