The Lotus-Heart is owned and operated by the Sri Chinmoy Centre which offers a variety of cultural and sporting activities, learn to meditate programmes and concerts. It offers a modern and holistic approach to self-development, introducing meditation and a dynamic lifestyle into our contemporary world.
True joy, peace and happiness can be achieved by embarking on a journey of inner discovery. Through meditation, music, poetry, art, health and wellbeing we hope to provide inspiration for all — to continue the discovery of joy, peace happiness and much, much more.
Venue for All Events
The Lotus-Heart at 363 St Asaph Street, Christchurch.
Registration for all Events
Admission is free but seating is limited and reservations are required.
To register please phone 377 1327, or use the contact form.
Make healthy choices.
Perfection will be yours.
~ Sri Chinmoy
Sunday 2 November, 2.00pm–4.00pm
Tea has many faces – it is a beverage, an art form, and even a spriritual path (dao). It is simplicity and a highly refined craft. Tea inspires poetry and comforts us. It touches people’s lives. In this tea tasting, you will be introduced to the various types of tea: flavour, culture and history. Presented by Jo Bind from
the Ya-Ya Teahouse.
The Lotus-Heart was first established on 13th February 1997 as a small café at 595 Colombo Street, Christchurch.
The Lotus-Heart is one of many vegetarian restaurants and cafes around the world independently owned and operated by members of the Sri Chinmoy Centre. These enterprises are inspired by Sri Chinmoy’s vision for a oneness world family founded upon peace and love, and we endeavour to create a microcosm of that vision here at The Lotus-Heart.
Many of the restaurants have names given individually by Sri Chinmoy, who gave us the name “The Lotus-Heart” in April 1997, in fact our logo is actually Sri Chinmoy’s original hand writing. When he visited New Zealand in 2002 Sri Chinmoy wrote a song for The Lotus-Heart, and he even visited our cafe in January 2003.
Over the years we gradually began to outgrow our premises at 595 Colombo Street, and opened a second location in Cathedral Square on 7 January 2008 in the historical original Chief Post Office building (built in 1879). We were blessed with a beautiful space upstairs overlooking the Cathedral.
On February 22nd 2011 both of our locations were busy and we are extremely grateful that no-one at either place was harmed during the earthquake. Sadly our café on Colombo Street was in a block of buildings that have now been demolished. We have many sweet and fond memories of the time we spent there and all the special friends we made over the years. Although the restaurant building in Cathedral Square is largely undamaged, the area remains inaccessible.
We were very fortunate to have some free space in the front of our Centre at 363 St Asaph Street, which has meditation spaces and offices in the back. While some of our staff members spent time overseas, the rest got to work to create a new Lotus-Heart. Our current location opened its doors with deep gratitude on 27th July 2011 as The Lotus-Heart Restaurant at 363 St Asaph Street.
It gives us the greatest joy to see all of dear friends and loyal customers from the café and the restaurant walking in the door of our new location. We feel very optimistic about the future. We are happy here and hope you will be too! Please let us know if there is anything we can do to make your time with us more enjoyable.
There shall come a time when this world of ours will be flooded with peace. Who is going to bring about this radical change? It will be you, you and your brothers and sisters. You and your oneness-heart will spread peace throughout the length and breadth of the world.
~Sri Chinmoy
