Our meditation library

My 71st birthday is looming, on bad days an ominous dark cloud heralding decline and ushering in those rather anxious and thoughtful reflections that often accompany ageing. Anxiety at the knowledge of certain mortality, remorse at the many unlived days and neglected...

We were at an inter-faith event in Auckland and the master of ceremonies, an eloquent church minister evidently inspired by his own words, was invoking God’s blessings on those assembled for an interminably long time. I wondered to myself if God, too, ever suffered...

One of the recurring themes in the writings and legacies of the great spiritual teachers all the way down through time is the accent they each place on the preciousness of a human incarnation, especially one in which there is some kind of spiritual awakening. One of...

She had always been moved and deeply touched by her Teacher’s comments about the spiritual value of giving, and at some heartfelt and intuitive level felt that she really understood what this meant and how it worked in that preternatural inner world where everything...

Recently a group of musician-friends, some from New Zealand,  gathered in Reykjavik to begin a musical tour, singing Sri Chinmoy’s songs in churches and old ruins throughout the heartland of this impressive nation……… If you were to try to paint eternity, these...

Holidays are coming, and soon our centre family will vanish away to relatives in hometowns, to gatherings down-country in small coastal villages, settlements where an uncle owns a seaside bach, an odd ritual here like some seasonal homing instinct, a migratory impulse...

“We’re fools whether we dance or not, so we may as well dance..” Old Japanese proverb My mid-60’s birthday is upon me, and with it comes that rather thoughtful and introspective feeling that often accompanies these milestone occasions. Although age only measures the...

After a lifetime of travel and lifelong encounters with many great human beings – our path took us to so many places, to encounters with so many people – it is a truism for me to say that Sri Chinmoy was, by a very great distance, the greatest person I have ever met....

"Over the years” Sri Chinmoy once said, “ I have been to a number of countries that follow the teachings of the Lord Buddha, but here in Myanmar I feel that Lord Buddha has a very, very special eye of compassion and a very, very special heart of universal love....

In that brutal bad New Zealand winter of 2002 the worst storm ever recorded charged across the central North Island mountains, burying the forests in meters of snow and sending the few humans crazy enough to be out there in that onslaught fleeing for lonely mountain...

Feel gratitude at the very beginning of your meditation practise. This will remind you that you have reached a very special time in your evolution, and that you are awakening, that there is a quiet perfection behind your life that is giving you this special...

In the great task of finding happiness and peace through meditation, there are some simple, useful things to keep in mind. Some of these are mentioned here: Don’t be too concerned with finding the right technique in meditation. Spiritual master Sri Chinmoy once...

I recently had the good fortune to visit Ireland with a group of musicians. Inspired by earlier pilgrimages to Iceland, Scotland, Myanmar and other world locations steeped in spiritual history, Oneness-Dream – our a cappella troupe of singers – recently toured and...

The Olympic Games are here. Beginning August 5th with the opening ceremony in the legendary Maracanã Stadium in Rio, 306 medal events are being contested across the 42 Olympic sports disciplines. It’s potentially a wonderful time when athletes from 207 countries and...

The Indian spiritual master Sri Chinmoy often compared the body to a cage, the soul as the captive bird. Sometimes the cage door might open just a little – a minor illness – and the soul bird would fly away; other times the cage door could be wide open – a grave...

Bali, the land of a 1000 temples and a million smiling faces, a truly magical place where nature is so entwined in peoples’ existence and where the spiritual and materialistic worlds so effortlessly blend together, creating a perfect symphony of matter and spirit. In...

Many people believe that human consciousness is on the verge of a pivotal change – from the dominance of the mind to a growing recognition of the importance of the heart.  It represents a change so significant that it promises to reshape the very future of mankind,...