Sharani

My prasad offering for my 25th spiritual anniversary at Sri Chinmoy's Silver Jubilee Weightlifting Event in NY.

In my previous post, I talk about how turning fifty this Fall feels special because this year marks my spiritual half-life anniversary as well.

Because I am pretty psyched and enthused to reach this milestone, I am inspired to explore some different activities related to it.

I will also discuss them on another site where I have a member page within the Sri Chinmoy Centre website. It only seems fitting to write there since so much of my 50 related inspirations are related to being a student of Sri Chinmoy.

Srichinmoycentre.org is the top level of these websites and then it breaks down by regions around the world, by countries and by cities. Since I live in the U.S., when I want to learn what is happening in the Sri Chinmoy Centres in America, I visit US.Srichinmoycentres.org.  The latest news section talks about Joy Days, Races and special meditation activities around the U.S.

Today my fifty somethings musings are related to the smile diary and my goal of 5 smiles a day for 50 days. I wrote about beginning this project today over on my Sri Chinmoy Centre member page.

face lines crinkle
listen to the serenade
fifty summers fly
-Sharani

My haiku for turning 50 and crossing the threshold of half my life dedicated as a spiritual seeker on Sri Chinmoy’s Path.

25 years ago in 1985 I became a student of spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy.

• I have slowly and at times imperceptibly deepened my adoration and friendship with divinity.
• I have slowly and steadily grown in blossoming self-acceptance.
• I have held my ear up to the future and listened to the whisper serenade which beckons with a brighter tomorrow.

Aged 25 when embarking on this path in 1985, I now encounter the half century mark. Many find cause for contemplation in the 50th birthday.

In my case, I am extra motivated to ponder the age of 50 because it is also the turning point in my spiritual life. My 25th spiritual anniversary this year in 2010 marks my half-life anniversary as a seeker. From this point forward, more of my life on Earth will be in the context of conscious spirituality than not. No wonder I find a rooted sense of inner place and sanctuary within the Sri Chinmoy Centre.

Sri Chinmoy’s myriad offerings to humanity are guideposts in my inner and outer life. His writings illumine with simplicity that simply shimmers with wisdom. His artwork inspires and gives a gift of smile and joy. His music transforms on a molecular level with healing and uplifting waves of light. His athletic achievements and those of his students (such as the runners in the 3100 mile race going on in New York right now) banish the word impossible from the human dictionary.

For that reason, like the arc of the moon rising in the sky, my horizon traces 25, 50, forever. Gratitude, Grace and Forgiveness. 25, 50, forever. Thank you Sri Chinmoy for the gift of 25 years spiritual anniversary. This mid-life threshold of 50 years living makes short work of the business of growing wiser and younger at heart with each passing moment.

Happy Anniversary to Me.

Every two years the World Harmony Run travels across the USA and all over the world in more than 100 countries. To view how this year’s event is unfolding in America, visit Live from the Road. Right now the Run is in Arizona and once it reaches the West Coast it will return back to the East Coast until it arrives in my home state of Rhode Island on August 15th.

Leave me a comment here if you would like to take part in the Run in Rhode Island. It’s on a Sunday so for many there is no conflict if you work the usual weekdays 9 to 5.

I ran with the World Harmony Run (then Peace Run) in its inaugural year 1987 in New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado. Those days remain some of my life’s absolute favorite memories.

I love this featured video with footage from all over the world: Check it out!

Later this year I turn the big five-o and I don’t mean the Hawaii kind. Because this year is also my half life anniversary of journeying on a spiritual path, I have started brainstorming ideas to mark the occasion with gusto, flair and gratitude. I have scribbled some ideas in a notebook but am only just starting to approach the concept. I don’t dare commit most of them to public scrutiny yet but they will probably somehow include the number 50 or the number 5. Feel free to add a comment if you found inspiration in commemorating your 50th birthday with some kind of achievement that was meaningful to you. Maybe I will add it to my list!

Because I knew I could use a few good laughs, I couldn’t resist starting my contemplation of the subject on the lighter side of my list of possibilities. This website has lots of links to funny jokes about turning 50. Dare I admit it has the word “senior” in the URL??? I imagined that it wouldn’t be one of the harder tasks to find cute humor about cresting the half century hill.

The cardiologist’s diet:
if it tastes good, spit it out.
- Paulina Borsook

At fifty you’ve accumulated the knowledge and wisdom of half a century. This would be a tremendous asset if only darned senility hadn’t wiped your memory bank.

I also need levity to counteract the next time I have a hot flash, can’t sleep or remember my name, age and serial number, at least I can laugh. So the quest for 50 hot flash jokes is near and dear to my heart. If you are born free or young enough to not get the joke that God made women over 50 unable to have kids because they wouldn’t be able to remember where they put them, then I hereby command you to move on to another blog post such as the beauty of daffodils.

If you are nodding your head in agreement and laughing out loud at the joke, then hold on to your hat while you read these stories from minniepauz.com. You might wake your neighbors you will laugh so hard. I especially liked the story about the woman who jumped inside the ice cream freezer at the supermarket since I have become a big friend of taking deep breaths with my head inside the freezer of my refrigerator when in the midst of my own personal contribution to global warming.

Luckily I also have the inspiration of Sri Chinmoy to get me through rough moments such as these.

Age need not bind you.
Age need not blind you.
Age should only help you
To see the real in you
As soon as possible.
Excerpt from Twenty-Seven Thousand Aspiration-Plants, Part 194 by Sri Chinmoy

I am mostly thrilled about turning 50 but to quote Sri Chinmoy once again, there are some new circumstances in my life that have me insistent that “Humour is My Only Saviour”.

Traditionally Mother’s Day is a time for family to share together and includes Mother’s Day greeting cards, flowers and gifts, and a meal at Mom’s favorite restaurant. This year Mother’s Day took on a slightly different hue because of a little “cookie love” I shared in 2 different Drop In and Decorate Cookie Donation events held in honor of Mother’s Day.

First I attended a Drop In and Decorate event in Rhode Island at the home of professional food writer and blogger Lydia Walshin, the founder of Drop In and Decorate. There I got to rub shoulders with some veterans in the craft of artistic and creative cookie decorating. In honor of mothers everywhere, we decorated 325 cookies for: SSTARbirth in Cranston, a shelter for chemically dependent, pregnant or postpartum women and their children; Abby’s House in Worcester, a multi-purpose resource center for homeless women; and Our Place in Cambridge, a day-care center for homeless children and their moms.

Cookies decorated at RI event

Lydia kindly sent me home from her 3rd annual event for Mother’s Day with leftover icing and some cookies so that I could use them at a Drop In and Decorate event I organized at the library where I work in Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

On Tuesday May 4th, the library enjoyed its second Drop In and Decorate event, having previously done one in December 2009 to give cookies to the local Senior Center in town. This, our second ever event, saw us expanding our community connections with 250 cookies for the event baked and donated by the New Bedford Vocational Technical High School Culinary Arts Baking students.

The actual decorating event was shared by local Boy Scouts, TCAN/Key Club students from Dartmouth High School and various community members and library patrons.

The cookies decorated at the library were given to the Women’s Center of New Bedford and Fall River. 3 shelters run by them each received a tray of cookies along with a smaller tray for the hard-working staff as well. We hope the cookies are a nice Mother’s Day touch in their lives today.

Here is a video on YouTube which shares about the event:

I made another video on Youtube about the daffodil field in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. Making a visit to its sea of yellow and white is now a tradition every Spring. This year’s pilgrimage came on my day off of work and found me driving all the way from Rhode Island to Dartmouth to hang out with the daffodils in Parsons Reserve. I enjoyed the solitude and beauty since I had the daffodil vista all to myself. They are stunning don’t you think?

p.s. for me this was self-transcendence because I used some editing techniques that were new to me such as cutaway…

Sri Chinmoy Tulip

Did you know that some tulip flowers are officially named after someone or something? Examples include presidents, royalty or famous people.

There are currently over 3,000 varieties of tulips and the Royal General Bulbgrowers Association in the Netherlands keeps careful track of all the new hybrids with the International Cultivar Register of Tulip Names.

Sometimes an unnamed tulip receives the name of a person, place or thing recognizable to many.

Some of these tulips with famous and recognizable names can be found in Keukenhof, an amazing huge garden located southwest of Amsterdam in Holland (or the Netherlands), the modern-day tulip capital of the world. If you love tulips, this is a must see place to go. It is the biggest bulb flower garden in the world with 4.5 million tulips.

Over 44 million people have visited it and it is the most photographed spot on the planet. New to Keukenhof in 2009 is the “Walk of Fame” which features tulips named after people and things. There you can find tulips named after the band Pink Floyd, the Disney character Donald Duck, the famous Indian actress Aishwarya Ray, 4-time Olympic medalist Inge de Bruin, Ferrari, Prince Willem-Alexander and more.

My meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy is one of these notable people with a tulip named after him. The tulip is is an orange/red colour with a yellow edge on the petals. It was cultivated by Jan Ligthart and was officially inaugurated as the Sri Chinmoy Tulip on April 30, 2005 in Keukenhof in conjunction with the World Harmony Run arriving in Holland. The tulip is “permanently listed in the International Cultivar Register of Tulip Names” according to the official certificate received during the tulip’s inauguration.

I was lucky enough to purchase some of these Sri Chinmoy Tulip bulbs in order to plant them in the yard of my home and I have flowers blooming right now this April.

It took two years for me to succeed (squirrels are a big problem in my yard) but it was worth the wait. In 2008, I planted my first Sri Chinmoy tulip bulbs brought all the way from Holland by some of Sri Chinmoy’s Dutch students. I tried my technique that worked like a charm in previous years where I waited to plant the bulbs in early December to thwart the squirrels from eating them. No charm this time – not a single tulip bloomed the following Spring.

So last Fall (2009) I switched it up and tried a different technique to protect the tulip bulbs from getting devoured by the squirrels. I put Shake Away granules to deter squirrels from coming around the area where they were planted. This time it worked! I have my first Sri Chinmoy Tulips blooming in my yard in Rhode Island. I would happily do a commercial for Shake Away, having used it to get rid of a mystery critter living under my shed and to get mice to move out of my house. But back to the tulip…

The tulip is quite stunning. I particularly like the way it looks like light is emanating from it when the sun hits it. For a tulip to look like it is giving off light is rather symbolic given that it is named after a spiritual teacher who dedicated more than 40 years of his life to helping seekers find divine light, truth and peace.

Here are some photos of the tulip:

Fairies give joy: inner joy, outer joy. They give joy to sweet, innocent people through dreams. Sometimes, during meditation, they dance around. On a limited scale, they can fulfil wishes. They are always happy.
Excerpt from Conversations With The Master by Sri Chinmoy

We had arrived. First we came by ferry from the port of Fajardo on the east coast of Puerto Rico. Then in order to witness this hidden wonder of the Caribbean we stayed overnight in a guest house in Esperanza, Vieques. We were picked up in front of the guest house where we stayed in a rickety old school bus and our Island Adventures Biobay Tour was underway. We bumped along on the bus through the woods and pulled up at the edge of Mosquito Bay – reputed to be one of the best bioluminescent bays in the world.

We boarded a large pontoon boat and luckily the moon was nearly invisible in its cycle. The stars above shone brightly and the tour guides used a laser flashlight to tell us about the constellations as we rode out into the middle of the bay. They also explained about the fragile ecosystem with the mangroves and the highly salty water in the bay that contributes to the large concentration of micro-organisms that light up when motion stirs the waters.

It wasn’t until the final moment when they said that we could climb down the stairs on the end of the boat that I pondered the issue of my glasses. I cannot see well at all without them and if I wanted to swim in the bio bay and see the lights I would need them to stay on. I am so glad that I decided to take my chances and figured that the flotation vest that we donned would keep me buoyed high enough above the water to keep my glasses safely on my head.

The words magical and delightful cannot begin to convey how awesome it was to  move about in the water and watch the lights sparkle in the darkness around you. It was an experience unlike any other. Laughter and squeals of wonder were everywhere and we got ideas of how to move within the water to create the magic from watching each other. One of my favorites was to pretend you were playing the piano on the top of the water – fingers dancing on the bay and emitting sparks of light. Or if you dipped your arm into the water and lifted it out, the lights would sparkle in a trail wherever the water trickled down your arm. Old memories of water ballet suddenly resurfaced and I made dainty kicks and sweeping twirls in the water which caused the area around you to light up like a flashlight.

Now I know how Tinkerbell gets her fairy dust.  For sure it is bottled and exported from the Bioluminescent Bay in Vieques. If you want to see what it feels like to be a fairy, all you have to do is swim in a bioluminescent bay.

And if you want to imagine what the inner light of spirituality might look like in an outward manifestation, all you have to do is swim in a bioluminescent bay. For days afterward, whenever I meditated I thought of that magical night swim full of fairy dust light. The charm, delicacy and beauty of dancing sparkling light surely serves as a stellar representative of the effect of meditation and spiritual devotion in the midst of an otherwise ordinary day.

It is nearly impossible to catch the luminescence on camera or film. You can see photos of it at Biobay.com. Also you can watch this YouTube slideshow/video of Puerto Rico and Vieques Island Beaches and fall in love with PR just like I did:

The Olympics are an unprecedented, auspicious, glorious and precious Greece-vision. And what is this vision? This vision is nothing other than world-happiness. Happiness is love bubbling forth into the newness and fulness of true life, illumining life and fulfilling life.The Olympics tower above all man-made differences. They are infinitely bigger than race. They are eternally brighter than colour. They are supremely better than religion. They are not only constantly one with the evolution-hunger of aspiring mankind but are also humanity’s satisfaction-meal and perfection-nourishment.

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

Do you love the Olympics? Are you partial to the Summer or Winter Games or both equally? I happen to be more of a fan of the Summer Olympics than the Winter Olympics with one big exception. With years of ballet dancing under my belt, I watch the women’s figure skating with keen interest because the grace in figure skating reminds me of ballet. Seeing Korea’s Kim Yu-Na win the Gold Medal and break world records doing it in the free skate last night was positively stunning. I was also quite moved to watch Canada’s Joannie Rochette win the Bronze a mere 4 days after her mother’s passing.

The medal count by country during the games is a big focus for many. I am excited when the U.S. performs well and especially if it is a change from the norm – like in the Nordic Team Big Hill Event where the U.S. placed second and also when Billy Demong won a Gold medal and became the first ever American Olympic Nordic champion.

However, the deeper appeal in the Olympics transcends national boundaries. Self-transcendence is a cornerstone of my meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy’s philosophy, particularly in relation to sports and athletic endeavors. He has written extensively on the subject of the connection between body, mind and spirit and also was a great admirer of the Olympics. In the following passage from the book The Outer Running and the Inner Running, he answers a question concerning the connection between self-transcendence and the Olympics:

Question: How does your philosophy of self-transcendence, in which you state that mankind should strive for progress instead of success, apply to the up-coming Olympics?

Sri Chinmoy: All the athletes should bear in mind that they are competing not with other athletes but with their own capacities. Whatever they have already achieved, they have to go beyond.

The presence of all the great athletes at the Olympics represents a great opportunity. When an athlete has to compete with the rest of the world, there is every opportunity and possibility that he will transcend his own capacities. This is what is of paramount importance, and not whether he defeats others or not. God, the Author of all good, will be extremely pleased with the athlete only when he transcends his own capacities. We are all God’s children, God’s creation. If one of His children transcends himself, then the Father will be the happiest person. But if one member of the family defeats another member and gets joy while the other person becomes miserable, then where is the Father’s joy?

If we are one with the rest of the world, then we feel joy in others’ joy and their sorrow is also our sorrow. But most of us have not yet attained that consciousness. So it is always advisable for the athlete to keep in mind that he is competing with his own previous record. If he can transcend his own achievement, then it will be a true gain and a true achievement for the whole world.

What is of paramount importance is the individual’s attitude. The athlete has to feel that he is establishing a new record not for his own glory but in order to increase the capacity and improve the standard of the world. The winning athlete has to feel that he is representing all of humanity. Then, with a devoted and soulful heart, if he can soulfully offer his achievement to the Supreme Athlete, his Source, at that time he is doing absolutely the right thing. If this is his attitude then let him try his utmost to break world records. But if he wants to defeat the rest of the world only to bask in his own glory, then he is making a deplorable mistake.

The Olympic athlete should feel that he is a member of the world-family, and his goal should be his own continuous progress. If he can continually transcend his own achievements, he is bound to achieve satisfaction, for progress is nothing short of satisfaction. The two go always together. If he cares only for success, then even if he succeeds he will not get abiding joy. For in the twinkling of an eye he will look around and see his achievements being shattered here or elsewhere. But his own progress is like a seed that eventually becomes a sapling and then a giant banyan tree which will give him a continuous sense of satisfaction. When he is progressing, at that time he is growing, he is glowing and, like a river, he is constantly flowing to his Vastness-Source, the Sea of Oneness.

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

With quotes such as the one at the top of this post and Sri Chinmoy’s fond friendship and mentoring of Olympic Athletes such as Carl Lewis and Tatyana Lebedeva, it is quite evident that Sri Chinmoy’s answer to the question “Do you love the Olympics?” is a resounding yes. For that reason, the Olympics and my meditation teacher’s life and writings are forever connected whenever the Olympic games are held.

With the devastating earthquake in Haiti on January 12, 2010, I feel drawn and compelled to acknowledge it here before I could think of writing about anything else.

The Worldwide Humanitarian Service arm of the International Sri Chinmoy Centres, Oneness-Heart-Tears and Smiles, has often compassionately responded to countries in need after disasters.

In the meantime, I find myself remembering how recently I spent time in the Dominican Republic and spent time sightseeing in Santo Domingo – now a key way to reach Haiti by land if not flying into Port-Au-Prince. Or I remember learning about Haiti through reading the book Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder as he portrays the heroic efforts of Dr. Paul Farmer to serve the medical needs of the people of Haiti.

It is especially sad that this terrible earthquake has hit a country that was already the poorest nation in the entire Western hemisphere. I am consoled, however, to witness the immediate and dramatic outpouring of concern and assistance already underway.

My thoughts at times such as these turn to Sri Chinmoy’s writings on the United Nations and his emphasis on viewing the world as one family. The following excerpt from his book The Tears of Nation-Hearts is especially appropriate as the world pulls together to help Haiti.

“Each nation has achieved something special, at least for itself. When a nation is ready to feel that other nations are an extension of its own being, when a nation becomes aware that all nations belong to one family, one source, and have one common goal, then that particular nation can easily teach or share its lofty achievements. Each nation knows inwardly that satisfaction and perfection lie only in self-giving, not in displaying its grandiose achievements or in hoarding its capacities.

All nations are pilgrims, eternal pilgrims, walking along the same road, the road of Eternity. On the way, some become tired and want to take rest. They do not have the energy to walk any farther. At that moment, if the nations that are ahead can feed and energise those that have fallen back, then the lagging ones can easily keep pace with the nations that are marching speedily.

If a strong nation feels that its progress will be slow if it helps a weak one, I wish to say that this is not true. If one nation encourages, inspires, feeds and energises the nations that are behind, then the gratitude-flower of those particular nations will blossom inside the strong nation’s heart, and the fragrance of the gratitude-flower is bound to accelerate the strong nation’s progress toward its destined goal. The fragrance of the flower will inspire it, and from this inspiration it will get abundant life, abundant light and an abundant sense of achievement and perfection.”
-Sri Chinmoy, The Tears of Nation-Hearts, 1974

From that same lecture given at the United Nations in 1974 come these additional words that are so poignant in moments like these:

“Each individual being, each man and woman, should feel that he belongs not to his own nation, but to all nations. That does not mean that he will neglect his own nation and devote all his attention to other nations. But each human being who has the energy and willingness to be of service to other nations will also have the willingness to serve his own country in ample measure. While serving his own country, he has to feel that it is becoming one with other nations. He has to feel that his own arms are becoming one with his eyes. His arms are his power of work, and his eyes are his power of vision. His vision carries him to the length and breadth of the world, whereas his arms remain where he himself is. With his vision he sees the needs of his brothers and sisters of the world. Then with his arms he has to work to fulfil those needs. He can do this only when he feels that he has gone far beyond his little family and has accepted the world-family as his very own.

The greatest wise man of the past, Socrates, taught us something very profound when he said, “I am not an Athenian, nor am I a Greek. I am a citizen of the world.” If each individual in each nation can proclaim this message, if each individual in each nation can consciously and devotedly feel that he does not belong to a little family called “I and mine” but to a larger family called “We and ours,” then the message of the United Nations, the message of love, of brotherhood, of peace, of soulful sharing, can easily be received, embraced and executed by the entire world.”
-Sri Chinmoy, The Tears of Nation-Hearts, 1974

I am praying that relief efforts can prevail quickly and successfully and have already texted the word Haiti to 90999 to donate an immediate ten dollars to the Red Cross via the U.S. State Department. To follow news updates at CNN, I am reading here.