Mike Spino: America is seeking a form of an Olympic training centre, yet the American lifestyle negates the use of any mental training that is larger than biofeedback or personality inventory. As a university coach seeking a mental training technique with objective timings, how does one balance the objectives of a programme? Is it a 'given' that as we seek dual purposes of spirituality and performance, we will remain an iconoclast, understood by only a small circle and questioning our own methods?
Sri Chinmoy: It is quite likely that you will be understood by only a small circle because most runners are either unaware of the inner realities or are apt to feel that the inner realities cannot be manifested in the outer world. The inner realities are for the inner world; the outer realities are for the outer world: this is what they think. But no, the inner realities, meaning the inner capacities, must be executed on the outer plane. The seed must germinate; it has to grow into a plant and then into a huge banyan tree.
Sri Chinmoy, Run and smile, smile and run, Agni Press, 2000