Thank you very much for watching this video.
If you enjoyed this video, please like and subscribe.
Music
Children have an innate spirituality.
We're surrounded by the love of our parents and our family,
and the spontaneous feeling of joy that we get from life
is inherently spiritual, but we don't know anything else.
Of course we don't label it as spirituality when we're small children.
For me, the first time I really consciously felt a connection
with something beyond my everyday existence,
which I would now term spirituality,
was at the age of eight when I started to play the piano.
Out of the blue I just one day said to my parents,
I want to start learning the piano.
I don't know where that impulse came from.
So I started playing the piano and I just fell in love with the piano,
absolutely and completely.
I would spend hours every day playing the piano
because this for me was another world.
Playing the piano, playing music brought forth a sense of beauty,
a sense of harmony, a sense of peace,
a sense of something sublime,
something beyond my ordinary everyday existence,
the world around me, you know, the people,
everything around me that I knew,
was surpassed and transcended in these moments,
these minutes, these hours where I could be communing
with something faster, something deeper, something more beautiful.
So although of course I didn't call it spirituality at the time,
it was definitely that something which is beyond,
which we call spirituality, which was calling me
and in which I felt very, very much at home.
Again it was from music that I came to meditation.
I was playing music a lot in my tertiary studies.
I was doing a music degree and I just had this intuitive sense
that learning to meditate would help me with my music in two areas.
One, I felt that if I could learn to meditate
I would not become so nervous when I was performing
and also I felt that meditation would be a way to access
the deeper reality, the source of the music
because when you're playing you don't want to be just playing the notes,
you want to be bringing forth something, something sublime,
something from within.
So I started going to meditation classes run by the Shri Chinma Centre
and very soon, within a matter of weeks,
I found that I was not becoming so nervous
and I found that I was being able to access the deeper source of the music.
So what I was originally looking for came very quickly.
But also what came very quickly was a sense
that meditation would lead me somewhere much faster and much deeper
than what I had initially been seeking for.
So very soon I joined the Shri Chinma Centre.
I found reading the books by Shri Chinma,
listening to the music of Shri Chinma, seeing his artwork,
immersing myself in his world,
gave me an entree, an access to a much deeper part of myself
and for me, a spiritual master, a meditation teacher is just that.
You don't follow a spiritual master because he is someone great and high.
You follow a spiritual master because he shows you the new pathways
to open up deeper parts of yourself.
It's like a power grid.
Most countries have a power grid
and the producers of power, the electricity power stations,
the coal power stations, the hydroelectric power stations,
they all feed energy into this power grid
and then all the businesses and the factories and the houses
take energy from the power grid.
So if a spiritual master is someone who has access to that grid,
it's not a power grid but it's like a consciousness grid,
the universal consciousness that pervades all of us and pervades the universe.
And most of us as individual human beings,
we only have access to our own small little world.
So if we can get access through a spiritual master to that universal consciousness
that is symbolized by that power grid,
then it's an immediate way to access the real teacher, the real Guru,
who is, you can say God, you can say the Supreme,
you can say the universal consciousness which we are all a part of,
we are all inherently linked to that,
but as individuals it's difficult for us to gain that access.
So that's the role of a spiritual teacher,
is that he or she is a link that gives us that direct access to that universal consciousness.
So for me, I wasn't looking consciously,
I was not consciously looking for a spiritual path or a Guru or a spiritual master.
I more or less stumbled across this means of accessing this deeper and higher
and more beautiful and subtle and sublime realms of reality which are deep within me.
So for me meditation is not, it has become like the sky,
it's something that is always there in the background of my life
and spirituality has become the essence of my living.
So if you like meditation, I cannot say meditation has done this for me,
this specific thing or it has done that specific thing for me.
For me meditation is like, well you have a camera there,
and with a camera you can change the lens, you can put a wide angle lens
and all of a sudden you can see much more when you're looking through the camera,
you can see a greater field of vision and that wide angle lens gives you that enhanced capacity,
it gives the camera that enhanced capacity.
So for me meditation is like that.
Meditation is like putting on a different lens, a much, much wider angle lens
and so when I am meditating regularly, I have this vast perspective on the world
and on myself, it gives me a much greater sense of poise,
a deeper sense of peace, a deeper sense of connectedness with myself
and with others and with the world, with the environment, with everything.
So it enhances, it intensifies and it elevates our understanding,
our consciousness and our perspective on everything.
In 1987, my spiritual teacher Shri Chinmoy founded the Peace Run
as a torch relay where anyone who is interested or inspired
can participate, what we do is we carry a torch, a lighted flaming torch
like an Olympic torch from country to country, from hand to hand, from heart to heart
and this torch symbolizes our universal longing, our aspiration for peace,
both peace within ourselves, individual peace of mind you can say
but also universal peace, peace between people, peace between neighbours,
between friends, between communities, between countries, between nations
and peace between man and his environment.
So peace is a vast universal concept which we all want, we all need.
So the Peace Run is a celebration of this aspiration.
It shows us that what we have that unites us is of course far greater than
the superficial things which divide us.
That's something which, it's a phrase which we hear very often
but to actually do something practical to bring forward that consciousness
is something very valuable.
So for the last five or six years the Peace Run has been known as the World Harmony Run
but we feel the time has come now to go back to the original name
which is the Shri Chinmoy Oneness Home Peace Run.
Shri Chinmoy is there because he's the founder of the Run.
The Oneness Home is the world that we all live in, this is our home
and it's a Oneness Home because we are all one
and peace is the quality that brings forward that consciousness of Oneness Home.
So the Shri Chinmoy Oneness Home Peace Run is the full name
but of course we call it Peace Run for short.
And this year we're running all the way around the continent of Australia.
It's about 15,000 kilometres.
We'll be joined by runners from many different countries,
probably 15 or 16 different countries,
to carry the torch right the way around Australia.
We will start and finish in Canberra, the capital city of Australia,
which this year coincidentally is celebrating its centenary.
And the Run will take us from late April to the middle of August.
So about three and a half months we'll be on the road carrying the message of peace
to school children, to community groups, to the media, to mayors,
to anyone we meet along the road.
It's a really enjoyable event.
It's a really inspiring event.
Obviously it's tough, it has its challenges.
You're out on the road for many a long day, running many kilometres.
But it has a tremendous sense of camaraderie amongst the running team
and a tremendous sense of connectedness to the people we meet along the way
because everyone responds to the torch, everyone responds.
The flame represents that inner yearning for peace that we all have.
So it's something that's universal, it's something which is good, you know,
and it's wonderful to be participating in something which on such a fundamental,
simple way unites us.
The Street Chin Moe Centre, aside from our work staging free meditation classes,
which is one of the main things that we offer,
because we strongly believe that offering meditation classes to the public
is a way to bring forward that inner peace, that inner wealth that we all have.
And everyone can meditate, you know, it's not some special talent
or some unique gift which only the chosen few can access.
It's something which everyone can do.
So meditation is something we strongly encourage.
We also strongly encourage physical fitness and sports and well-being.
And this philosophy of self-transcendence was very dear to Street Chin Moe.
So the Street Chin Moe marathon team has sponsored and promoted athletic events
in many countries and in Australia we are very active,
we have many running races and swimming races and triathlons
and multi-sport races which we stage for the public
to encourage that sense of physical fitness
and that sense of well-being that comes from participating in events.
You know, it's not just that people talk about run as high,
you know that there is this sense of elation that you achieve from running.
It's not just a physical sense, it is really a spiritual sensation
because it enhances our sense of ourselves, it enhances our self-confidence,
it expands our horizons in many wonderful ways.
So probably my favourite event that we stage is called the Street Chin Moe triple triathlon in Canberra.
Canberra is a wonderful city, it has three lakes
and many areas of natural bushland incorporated into the city design.
It's a modern city, a modern design city.
So this event, the triple triathlon incorporates these natural elements of the city.
So there are three swims in the three different lakes
which are linked by three mountain bike sectors
and three running sections which are all through the bushland
on dirt trails and tracks.
So it's an all-day event which one individual can do by themselves
or they can do in relay teams.
So that's probably my favourite race
because it blends with the natural and urban landscape of Canberra, which is my home.
So it's, yeah, I love this race.
As I said earlier, I think it was through music that I first had this connection,
this awareness of spirituality.
So music has always been something essential to me,
something very elemental because music goes beyond the mind.
You know, through the mind we think we know things
and we believe that we can connect with people, but you cannot really.
It's only through the heart that we can expand our awareness
and that we can really connect with others and that we can really know anything.
So music for me is the language of the heart.
It connects us through our hearts and it connects us with the deeper part of our own being.
So I would say that the times that I feel happiest, the times I feel most complete,
most normal are times when I'm meditating or running or playing music or singing.
So singing for me is the most natural form of music
because you're using your own voice.
It's organically the first instrument is the voice.
And chanting has been used for thousands of years as a means of meditation,
as a means of connecting with ourselves.
So singing and music are inherent.
And Sri Chinmoy composed over 22,000 songs.
So for him also, music and singing was really a direct and fundamental way
of connecting with the deeper spiritual part of our being.
You cannot meditate 24 hours a day, but we can sing.
We can do other activities which help bring our heart to the form.
I'm very fortunate to be involved in a group.
It's called the Himalayan Summit Singing Group.
It's led by my colleague Kailash Bhair from Zurich.
And he had the, you can say, the crazy idea or the dream to sing,
to perform all 22,000 of Sri Chinmoy songs.
And we started in the year 2000 and we sing.
The singers are from all around the world, so we meet together three times a year.
And each time we perform 240 songs.
So the whole project to sing all the 22,000 songs is projected to take us until year 2031.
So some of us will be quite aged by then, but we hope to be all still singing
and to have completed this massive undertaking.
And for me, it's a wonderful, wonderful project because every day I'm learning new songs.
It's a tremendous discipline, a spiritual discipline, because you cannot get behind
because then you find there are too many songs to sing before the next performance, too many songs to learn.
So for me, it's a wonderful discipline and a wonderful way, like my daily meditation practice,
to keep me connected with that real reality, which is the spirituality within.
For me, the irony, the main frustration, if you like, in life,
which I've learned through meditation, through my connection with Sri Chinmoy, through spirituality,
is that we already have peace.
You know, this peace is already in the depths of our heart.
And in our sublime moments, in the moments when we feel connected to nature
to each other, to music, to beautiful things, we have that peace.
So it's there already.
So the thing which is preventing us from experiencing it most of the time is our own minds,
the division that we create in our minds and our desires.
So for me, the single thing that I wish for more than anything else is for us,
both me personally and for us collectively, to go beyond the barriers,
the self-created barriers which our minds create.
And I feel that meditation is really the only way to achieve this,
that we need to encourage as much as we possibly can, everyone in the world, to meditate,
to go deeper within, because all of our problems, all of our weaknesses,
all of our failings, all of our incapacities, all come from the insecurity,
from the fear, from the sense of division which arises from our limited mind.
But the heart that we have within us, the spiritual heart is unlimited, it's vast, it's infinite.
It has so much capacity, so much love, so much peace, so much joy, so much creativity,
so much power, so much oneness.
And it's there within all of us.
It's just waiting to blossom, to come to the fore, and it will blossom, it's inevitable.
So what I'm hoping for will come, but all I'm hoping for is that it will please come sooner.
So what I'm hoping for will come sooner.
