Sri Chinmoy hoists a 200-pound weight overhead, using only his right arm, to celebrate Congressman Gary Ackerman’s success in reducing his weight from 300 to 200 pounds. The New York Congressman, who had been invited to open the Sri Chinmoy 1,000-Mile Race in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens, is there to personally witness the lift.
The race, including simultaneous 700-mile, 1,000-mile and 1,300-mile races around a one-mile loop, draws athletes from 12 countries.
In his opening remarks, Ackerman calls Sri Chinmoy a “very, very dear friend ... (and) a truly remarkable and unique individual ... one of a kind. There is none like him.”
Other speakers helping to kick off the race include Queens Parks and Recreation Commissioner William Cook and several world-class ultra- marathoners.
Sri Chinmoy sprinting on the track in the ‘gully’ beside Aspiration-Ground in Jamaica, New York.
Sri Chinmoy Answers
a question from Mr. Steve Finley, Major League baseball player with the Arizona Diamondbacks at The Smile of the Beyond luncheonette in Jamaica, Queens, New York
Mr. Steve Finley: The hardest part of baseball is every day trying to get your mind right to perform.
Sri Chinmoy: You want to keep your mind under control. There are a few ways, but the easiest and most effective way is to bring the heart to the fore. The soul can control the mind, but it is difficult, extremely difficult, for us to bring the soul forward. If we can bring the soul to the fore, then in the twinkling of an eye the soul can tame the mind. Since it is extremely difficult for us to be in touch with the soul, we can try to feel the existence of our spiritual heart. Then we can invoke the heart to come to the fore and tame the mind.
In the circus there are elephants and many other wild animals, but there is also someone who can control them. In your case, if you can feel that your heart has infinitely more power than your mind, then it is easy to keep the mind under control. You have to feel that the heart is definitely, definitely stronger than the mind.
Each time the mind says something negative, immediately you will take the other side. Always be positive, positive, positive! Again, if the mind says something positive, please try to increase the height, the length and the depth of the positive thought. If you have any positive thought, immediately try to expand that thought. Please try to feel that your positive thought is going higher than the highest, farther than the farthest and deeper than the deepest.
If a negative thought comes, immediately try to feel that you are absolutely squeezing it like a rubber ball. Your arms and wrists are so strong! Just imagine the thought as something very small and insignificant, like a ball. You can squeeze it, or you can break it into pieces. If any negative thought comes into your mind, use your strength — physical, vital, mental and spiritual — to destroy it. Again, if any positive thought comes, please try to have a prayerful attitude. When you have a good thought, in a prayerful way try to increase it: its height, its length and its depth. This way you can control the mind.
There is something called a higher mind. This mind wants to be changed, to be improved, to be illumined. This is the mind we are trying to have by virtue of our prayers and meditations. There is also a mind that does not want to change. It wants to bind us, and it wants us to doubt our capacities. One moment the doubting mind tells you that you can do well, very well, in your game. The next moment that same mind may tell you that you are no good, you are useless. This moment your mind is saying you are a great player. The next moment your mind will say there are many players who are better than you, and in that way it makes your life miserable. You do not need that mind! The other mind, the mind that wants to be illumined and transformed by the light of the heart, is the mind that you want.
The spiritual heart will always tell you who you really are, and the heart will always give you encouragement, enthusiasm, willingness, eagerness and intensity. From now on, please give as much attention as possible to your heart. The heart is bound to increase your capacities in baseball in everyway. The mind will think of others who are not doing well, and then you will be upset. Or the mind will think of someone who is doing very well, and then you will say, “How I wish I could do as well as that player!” These wrong thoughts will only bring jealousy and insecurity into your life. But the heart will not do that! The heart will immediately identify with everyone on your team. You will have such identification and oneness that, when they achieve something great, you will feel that you yourself have done it. Again, if somebody has missed a ball, you will have such oneness that you will feel that you yourself have missed it. In this way, on the strength of your heart’s identification and oneness with others, you will be able to go far beyond your present capacities and achievements.
Published in Only Gratitude-Tears