Category Archives: Sri Chinmoy

Jan 29

The Golden Boat

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Most mornings after I finish meditating, I turn to a list of achievements detailing activities and accomplishments by my meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy. The set of cards produced in 2008 (one year after Sri Chinmoy’s passing) provides a day-by-day view of notable moments in Sri Chinmoy’s remarkable and extraordinarily productive lifetime. Who else could find achievements noteworthy enough to populate all 365 days of the year?

This morning when I read the activities for January 29th – along with art exhibit openings (1975), new weightlifting records (2002), peace concerts in South Africa (1996) and Brazil (2000) – Sri Chinmoy began a poetry series entitled The Golden Boat on January 29th, 1974. He began writing these poems in Puerto Rico and the series eventually encompassed 1,000 poems in total with the publication of the 20th volume in October of that same year. Each of the 20 volumes contains 50 poems and they are available to read online.

The symbol of a golden boat traveling to a golden shore is found in Sri Chinmoy’s poetry, songs and artwork. I have a framed print on the wall in my living room which is called The Golden Boat – Sri Chinmoy painted this abstract image of a boat on the water in 1976.

Here is one poem from the series I especially like:

MY LOVE OF GOD

My morning love of God
Liberates me from the frets
And fevers of life.
My afternoon love of God
Protects me from world-dangers
And world-tragedies.
My evening love of God
Inspires me to stand
On the battlefield of life
To distribute the Breath of God.

Sri Chinmoy, The Golden Boat, Part 11, Agni Press, 1974.

Four days after he began the Golden Boat poems, he completed 208 poems in 22 hours. A book called The Inner Journey published in 1977 includes the transcript of a talk he gave to the disciples who helped publish and print those 208 poems students the same day they were written.

Dear children, the Golden Boat is not mine. This Boat belongs to the Supreme. We are all passengers on this Boat. You may say that I am an experienced passenger because I have been on this Boat for a longer time than you have been. But I wish to say that this Boat belongs to the Supreme. Right now He has only a few hundred passengers on this Boat, but a day will dawn when he will have seven thousand passengers or even more.

And in the near or distant future the Boat of the Supreme, where we are all now seated, will carry not only seven hundred or seven thousand individuals, but the whole of humanity to the Golden Shores of the Beyond. The Transcendental Supreme in His Golden Boat will carry all of us to the Golden Shores of the ever-transcending Beyond.

Sri Chinmoy, The Inner Journey, Agni Press, 1977.

Somehow when I think of the image of a golden boat ferrying human beings towards God, I imagine Noah’s Ark. As a child, I had a particular fondness for the concept of Noah’s Ark and used to imagine when I went to bed at night that my bed was the ark and that my stuffed animal collection represented all the animals brought onto the ark. This thought made me feel safe and protected by God.

Today I revisit the poems of The Golden Boat and dwell in a grateful space as I ponder the magical wisdom, life lessons, aphorisms and food for the soul overflowing in Sri Chinmoy’s poetry.

 

Apr 08

New Memoir Benefits Christchurch

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Ushasi Jill Thompson
Ushasi Jill Thompson
“You have a destiny. You have a role to fulfill in your community and in the larger context of our country, and in the world. Each individual has a guiding light and a voice deep within that will direct you to become all that you are here to unfold in your life. Be in touch with that voice. Be in touch with that direction. Be in touch with your destiny as an instrument of healing touch. “
-Ushasi Jill Thompson offered the above words to students of Swedish Institute upon their graduation from the massage therapy program.

Currently Director of Academic Support Services at Swedish Institute, the oldest continuously running school for massage therapy in the U.S., Ushasi shares her own guiding light and journey to destiny in her newly published memoir Thy Will Be Done.

The book is a fascinating account of her life experiences which includes her coming of age in New Zealand at the age of 18 and conversion to born-again Christianity.

Thy Will Be Done book cover
Thy Will Be Done book cover

It follows her through the world of Esalen, Divinity School, the Metropolitan Community Church in New York, teaching massage therapy and finding her spiritual home in the Sri Chinmoy Centre as a disciple of the spiritual teacher Sri Chinmoy.

Her faculty profile nicely sums up her varied experiences:

Ushasi’s 20-year practice as a massage therapist focused on massage therapy for medical conditions, as well as providing massage as part of the integration of bodywork with psychotherapy and spiritual meditation practice.
Ushasi holds a Massage Therapy Diploma from Swedish Institute. She has a B.A. in History of Religion from Mary Washington College in Fredericksburg, VA, and a Master of Divinity degree from the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She is a long-time member of the Sri Chinmoy Centre, and has studied bodywork and gestalt therapy at Esalen Institute.

Because her spiritual journey began in New Zealand and the memoir includes her return there again 30 years later with the International Sri Chinmoy Centres, Ushasi has decided that all proceeds from sales of the book will be donated in support of Christchurch Earthquake relief. First for sale this April 2011 in New York, copies may be obtained by contacting the author at: thywillbedone(dot)ushasi(at)gmail(dot)com.

Sep 11

9/11 – 9 Years Later Remembered

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How can it be already 9 years? How can it be only one short year until a decade has passed? Although the years have flown by, I am still mute in the memory of this terrible, terrible tragedy for the U.S. and indeed for the entire world.

On this 9th anniversary of 9/11 I had to go to work. I work in a public library in Massachusetts and manage the library’s website. I thought about posting about 9/11 on it but instead was wrapped up in the minutia of daily work moments and ended up posting about the state’s primary election in 2 short days, feeling that we have an obligation to serve the voter’s information needs as much as their reading, learning and other needs. Yet perhaps most of all I didn’t do it because I cowered with a sense of overwhelming incapacity in how to pay tribute with due dignity and respect.

Because my day did not include taking an active part in 9/11 memorial observances, I am tremendously grateful that today CBS New York kindly placed on the Web their video footage of the ceremony held at the Reflecting Pool at Ground Zero. Broken up into 5 segments, the footage allows one to experience the entire observance at Ground Zero. I am always especially moved by the flowers and flower petals offered in the reflecting pool and felt it was vitally important to recite aloud the names of those who lost their lives on that day.

The political leaders who attended offered words of remembrance and observance drawing upon the poetic and literary wealth of many famous poets and writers, mostly, but not all American. Mayor Bloomberg quoted Archibald MacLeish, Matthew Shenoda, Willa Cather and Dana Gioia. Vice President Joe Biden quoted Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. New York Governor David Paterson quoted Sri Chinmoy. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie quoted Langston Hughes. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani quoted Tennyson. Former New York Governor George Pataki quoted Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I am touched that Sri Chinmoy’s quotes on hope were included in the ceremony. I have derived tremendous inspiration from his writings in my years as a meditation student of his teachings. Here is a video montage of footage from this year’s ceremony that includes Sri Chinmoy’s following words on hope:

Hope
Knows no fear.

Hope dares to blossom
Even inside the abysmal abyss.

Hope secretly feeds
And strengthens
Promise.

-Sri Chinmoy

Jun 25

Spiritual Anniversary 25 50 Forever

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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.