After reading of this record experience, you may think that the record was over easy, or that my brains are scrambled, or maybe even that I have become a bit egg-centric. Egg-centric? Eggs-actly!
On a more serious note, one of the many things that I have learned from my spiritual teacher, Sri Chinmoy, is the importance of concentration. In order to be successful at anything, concentration is essential. I’ve always admired my teacher’s tremendous ability to be totally one-pointed. This ability is especially evident in his creative activities such as writing, composing songs, or painting. In fact, the first record I ever attempted was in honor of Sri Chinmoy’s completion of 16,000 paintings in 24 hours. I happened to be present for the entire event and I was amazed at my teacher’s capacity to paint practically nonstop without letting anything distract him.
One of Sri Chinmoy’s paintings.
Now back to this record effort. Most of the records I pursue usually involve some degree of concentration and leave me eggs-hausted, but I recently attempted a feat which was almost exclusively a test of mental focus and eggs-actness rather than physical endurance. This record had me walking on eggshells for weeks: the record for balancing the most eggs on end simultaneously. Okay…no more egg-stuff. I had never actually tried to balance an egg on end before but, as a kid, I heard that it was only possible once a year, on the day of the vernal equinox. However, I recently read in the Guinness Book that it was a proven fact that eggs balance the same regardless of what day it is, vernal equinox or not.
Anyway, I decided to try balancing an egg on end and, after a few minutes of trial and error, I did it! It looked so cool that I had to try another one – and another one. The eggs were standing, precariously balanced on an infinitesimal section of eggshell and countertop, as if by magic. An hour later, I had missed my dental appointment, but there were more than 20 eggs standing up on my kitchen counter, the product of my concentration. I was addicted! So what if the record was 420 raw eggs balanced simultaneously? And so what if while setting up new eggs, the old ones inevitably start falling over, taking other eggs with them, making the record even more daunting? Those rows of eggs in my kitchen were a thing of beauty, and I couldn’t wait to go out and buy more eggs so I could continue practicing!
I become obsessed-no eggs-ageration (oops!). I balanced eggs at every spare moment. As the days progressed and I grew more proficient, I would stay up later and later at night, covering every inch of my kitchen floor with various patterns of balanced eggs. My need for eggs (and sleep) became more and more eggs-treme (sorry-I just can’t help myself!). I was purchasing dozens at a time, sometimes buying out the entire egg section of a store. Eggs filled my refrigerator so as not to spoil. To make space, I had to begin eliminating other nonessential items, such as food!
Besides having a storage problem, it was also getting eggs-ceedingly uncomfortable buying the eggs. The ladies at the checkout counters of the grocery stores started giving me very nasty looks. I was perplexed, but I finally realized that since it was mid-October, they may have thought that I was stocking up for some massive mischief on Halloween night! It was obvious that I would have to attempt the record soon.
Finding a suitable venue, however, proved to be a lot harder than I imagined. In my mind, I considered the event performance art, and I was hoping to find a suitable museum nearby. The Queens Museum seemed like a good possibility, but they had a wooden floor, and the Guinness guidelines state that the balancing surface must be hard and smooth and specify that it cannot be concrete or wood. The marble floor at the entrance to the Queens Science Museum looked perfect, but while practicing there, I discovered a potentially disastrous drawback. Every time the front door opened, a gust of wind would rush in and knock the fragile eggs to the ground!
I was so desperate to find a museum that I ventured a call to Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum, but even they rejected me! I branched out to other venues such as the famous oval-shaped building in Albany, New York, called “The Egg” and the world’s largest dairy store in Connecticut, but no one could accommodate me, especially on such short notice. Then, just when I was beginning to get discouraged, a friend of mine in Rhode Island came to the rescue. He is a professor at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Art and Design (RISD) and he was able to reserve a large classroom where I could attempt my project within a few days. I was hoping to balance 500 eggs simultaneously, which I assured the Professor would probably take no more than 4 or 5 hours.
As it turned out, the tile floor at RISD was much harder than the floor I practiced on at home. The good news was, that once the eggs were balanced, they were more stable and didn’t fall over as much. The bad news was that it was much more difficult to get the eggs to balance in the first place. Hour after hour went by and, although it was slow going, the rows of balanced eggs grew.
I was about halfway towards the record when my concentration broke–suddenly I lost my touch. The eggs just wouldn’t balance properly. I was rejecting egg after egg and I began to worry. At this rate the school’s security guards would close up the building before I could reach my goal. I allowed myself to panic for a few seconds and then meditated briefly to restore my poise. The results were amazing! Within minutes I got my touch back. I even discovered a better way to balance certain odd-shaped eggs!
After about 7 hours, I finally managed to break the record, but I decided to keep going. I knew that the official witnesses, and also my friends, who had come along for moral support, were getting terribly bored, but I was having too much fun to stop! In the end, I stretched everyone’s patience to the limit, finally stopping at the 700 mark. After more than 12 hours of egg balancing I had virtually run out of eggs -or at least that’s what my friends told me!
The Professor was thrilled, and many of his students came by and seemed to be quite eggs-ited by the project. We packed up all the eggs and arranged to have them donated to a nearby homeless shelter. I haven’t balanced an egg since, but I can still feel the benefits of all those hours and hours of concentration. The whole experience was remarkably beneficial-an eggs-ellent adventure you might say, and that’s no yolk!
[Many thanks to www.srichinmoyart.com for the painting jpg file]
