Meditation Festival

March 14th - March 21st. New York, New York. A week long Festival of Meditation and Spirituality was sponsored by the Sri Chinmoy Centre in downtown Greenwich Village/SoHo/NoHo area featuring music performances, plays, multimedia presentations and meditation.

Opening with a concert of music a mantra on Sunday evening, the capacity crowd experienced an evening of Sri Chinmoy's soulful and uplifting music as performed by numerous groups of his students.

The Adventures in Consciousness multimedia presentation, offered by Ganapati J. Coleman, PhD the next night, focused on ancient spiritual themes as applied to an ultra modern lifestyle: the evolution of individual and collective consciousness and meditation's increasing relevance in contemporary society. The Art and Creativity Workshop, was given by Professor Khipra Nichols of the Rhode Island School of Design that same evening, encouraging participants to explore their creative energy generated through higher states of consciousness.

Two back-to back polished and inspired performances of the play Siddhartha Becomes the Buddha were given on Tuesday evening in the NoHo Bleecker Street Theatre to accommodate the overflow crowd. The essence of the Buddha’s philosophy and enlightened life were dramatically but profoundly portrayed in a moving tribute to one of the great spiritual masters of all time.

The Thursday evening presentation The Power Within was opened by Dr. Sakhshat Flowers who described the power of combining athletics with meditation. He then introduced Suprabha Beckjord, the only woman to complete the Self-Transcendence 3,100-mile foot race, the world’s longest certified road race. She is also the only person to run a staggering 3,100 miles 13 years in a row. Suprabha answered numerous audience questions about meditation and running, suprising many by her gentle humility and small stature, yet fueled by an indomitable will.

Next was Ashrita Furman of Guinness Records fame, having set over 270 records, and currently holding 110, including the official record for the most records. Ashrita exploded into the hall by hopping on a pogo stick while juggling three balls at the same time, riveting the audience. He described his journey from unnoticed nerd to overnight athletic sensation by virtue of mantra and meditation, then demonstrated running in flippers, balancing milk crates on his chin and cutting apples with a Samurai sword – meditation in action.

The final segment of the festival was a three day meditation workshop led by experienced teacher Austrian Aditya Nowotny. Step by step he guided seekers to powerfully experience their own spiritual hearts and capacities within the context of world spirituality throughout the ages.   Schedule of events.

• Gallery of Jowan's photographs