Sri Chinmoy Meditation Center

You get what you pay for in this world. Usually. But meditation workshops at the Sri Chinmoy Meditation Centre are free, and free is normally too good to be true. Usually. Except in this case, for after attending a series of free lessons in meditation, I can confirm it is good and it is true.
The Sri Chinmoy Centre say they offer classes free of charge because «meditation is our human birthright, as natural and normal as breathing and eating», and because «spirituality should not be charged for.» Right on, how can I possibly argue and not agree?
They don’t claim to have a monopoly on truth or spirituality, and in fact they say they want to set you up through their courses to find your own, the rationale «how can we charge you for a truth you already own»?
They also say that they are offering meditation free of charge because they wish to contribute to a more peaceful world — «a peace that begins with you» — and they have been doing so in New York since 1964 — before you, me and that guy down the road who charges you for self-​realisation even knew what meditation was. That to me is credibility and authenticity, and if you, me or him become just a little bit more peaceful, it’s a desperately needed practicality too.
You can find fault, find the not charged for glass half-​empty instead of half-​full. They don’t offer continuation courses beyond the introductory series for example, except for those who wish to take meditation to the next level and become a member of their Centre, but to me that’s ok – the stated point is to get you started on your own practise, and how much can you really expect in this world for free?
Occupy New York for peace and justice? Sure, but occupy yourself for inner peace first say the Sri Chinmoy Centre, and the more just and peaceful world we all hope for will surely follow.

This meditation workshop defied a lot of stereotypes I have heard about meditation.
1. It was free — I didn’t need to pay big bucks to get a mantra or other «secrets» of how to meditate. They also said at no point in continuing classes will there ever be a request for money or donation.
2. The teachers of the workshop demonstrated how meditation didn’t mean tuning out from the outer world but rather how to use meditation to be fully present and mindful in any part of our life.
3. While they discussed how meditation could reduce stress and increase positive emotions, they also showed in their own example how meditation could improve many aspects of activity — sports, art, musicians, teaching, leadership. It was really cool to have Guinness world record holders, ultra endurance athletes and college professors teach the tools they used to build a strong inner foundation that naturally expresses itself in outer excellence. So its not just about «feeling good,» but also about living to a fuller potential.
4. During the workshop, musicians performed meditative music composed by their teacher Sri Chinmoy and at one point they also played a recording of Sri Chinmoy playing an instrument called the esraj (kind of a cross between a sitar and a cello?). I have to admit, it was quite haunting and really relaxed me.
5. Last but not least, what really struck me about the whole experience was the vibe of integrity and encouragement that came across from all the presenters.
But what I found a bit annoying was the noise that came from the gym adjacent to the auditorium, which had a dodge-​ball league making a lot of noise. It was an ironic juxtaposition from us meditating in the auditorium, but it would be better if there wasn’t so much noise to compete with. Also, the chairs are a bit squeaky, which becomes pronounced when the group is trying achieve silence. Hopefully the organizers can schedule future workshops on a different night.
Overall, I recommend the classes to anyone looking for more awareness and mindfulness regardless of how busy and active your life is. They do a good job in making it simple and practical.

They give a really good introduction to meditation — which was surprisingly free (as of this posting Feb 2012), which they offer as a community service to encourage more people to meditate and feel and spread peace. Cool with me.
The initial presentation gave quite an interesting overview of meditation throughout history, showing an overlapping mystical pattern between Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. Exercises included relaxation, concentration, visualizations, chanting and an overall emphasis on using the «spiritual heart.» Some of the music during the course was very calming and helpful to meditation.
After the first presentation, they offered a free 5-​week follow-​up course to learn and practice more meditation techniques. The goal of the follow-​up classes was to encourage people to get their own regular practice going, and at the end of the course each person should «go out and find a spiritual path that you are personally drawn to.»
The class/​group meditations were helpful — often much easier than meditating on my own! Although it was often very difficult to calm my mind, I always came away feeling peaceful and much more clear-​headed.
The people giving the classes were friendly, and obviously quite committed to a disciplined spiritual lifestyle. Sri’s disciples seemed pretty upbeat and happy, so I guess there is something to it.
I’m not up for the intense disciplines of their particular path, but at least the course got me meditating — for free! For that I give it four out of five stars.

Ok… Stay away from this place. I was recently looking for an introduction to meditation workshop, as I have been wanting to learn more about meditation and begin to practice regularly. I was really excited when I found a free six week course at
. It started off great… learning some valuable information about meditation and the leaders were very nice people. However, on the last night of the course, everything shifted. They offered a three month follow up for those that wanted to try out becoming a «disciple» of Sri Chimnoy. They explained that this would involve picking up the Sri Chimnoy lifestyle. This included becoming vegetarian. (Ok, maybe I could see that one); making an oath to be celibate (Um…started to raise my eyebrows at this one… not because I sleep around by any means, but began to question how these people were going to tell me how to live my life); and finally, the kicker… making an oath to not have children, because ‘God gets upset when children take precedence over him’ (ding, ding, ding… Cult!).
I left that last day feeling very disappointed, as I was looking for a balanced group of people that would be a nice meditation community. You will definitely NOT find that in this group! It is based on their «guru’s» mandates of how one should live their life in order to reach «enlightenment.» In my eyes, my God and universe would never put someone down for having children, but rather encourage bringing children up lovingly and giving them so much positive attention as possible.
A couple of days after sitting with this experience, it was still bothering me a bit, so I decided to do some investigating. And good old Google revealed quite quickly that the Sri Chinmoy Center is a cult.
;
. Needless to say my feelings about this experience moved from that of disappointment to anger. I am writing this review in an attempt to help others avoid a similar experience.