As realized-yet-normal, increasingly-well-known enlightened guy Adyashanti says:
"The mystery is: only the mystery is."
Ed Kowalczyk clearly gets this, too .... per the video(s) below.
... and if you like .... maybe take just a moment to let the implications of that sink in ....
Yeah ... Ed's just a guy ... a regular person ... Adyashanti's just a guy, a regular person ... like you're a regular person ....
EXACTLY like you're a regular person ......
Could Self-Realization, Enlightenment, Salvation, Liberation ... be .... Real ........ could the Divine Mystery Really BE Consciousness ...?
.... the consciousness that's reading these words .... ?
REALLY ....?
It is, admittedly a bit of a Mystery ....
ONE that it might be a WHOLE lot of FUN to solve ...!
....
" .... Mine eyes have seen the glory of a love that does transcend ... Oh, how it deepens ... oh, how it deepens ... Heaven is One ... so why believe when you can see it for yourself?" ~LIVE, Mystery
(w/Chris Daughtry on American Idol 2006 ... playing to a viewing audience of tens of millions ....)
... you can listen to teachers and preachers try to control and/or educate the masses with information they know nothing about ...
... or, you can watch this video ...
.... and enjoy its reality ...... the reality of someone who simply ...
... knows ....
.... and ... it's true .... a lot of beautiful song lyrics don't have any basis in reality ...
.... however ...
.... some ..... some of the more ...... important ones ... well .... they do ....
And the incredibly beautiful and symbolic studio video, alas, has "embedding disabled" ... but I think you'll find clicking here and checking out HEAVEN to be well worthwhile ...
(... The girl's name? Shakti. The guy's name? Shiva. The river's name? Sushumna. Is the ... ending ... what happens to people who practice yoga?? Oh *YES* it does ........ "For whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it ..." ~Matthew 16:25)
"I don't need no one to tell me 'bout heaven ... I look at my daughter and I believe ..."~LIVE, Heaven
"This song is about spiritual awakening. If you doubt this, do some
Googling on Ed K. -- and yes, I know what he *said* - yogis and mystics
have engaged in this kind of reporting "sleight of hand" as long as
there have been yogis and mystics. The "old mother" dying, and her
placenta falling to the floor are the release of illusory
consciousness. The new mother is the awakening into realization (the
mother is language and discursive thought; she binds us, until we get
it [realize words and thoughts are within our own consciousness, and we
are independent of them] -- and then, she liberates us; the old mother
and new mother are actually the same.) The angel is the all-powerful,
yet fully innocent baby of each new moment of perception (the same
"baby" we cradle in space, in I Alone); Lightning Crashes is the flash
of pure consciousness in each moment of perception, *before* it splits
up into a sense of subject and object. I didn't get this either for a
long time; then I meditated for a decade, learned Sanskrit, and
realized. I also realized that our good friend Ed is putting the
"circle out to hide" in *every single song*. LIVE can take you all the
way Home (where the Heart is Given Up to the One -- from They Stood Up
for Love). Do I have any idea what I'm talking about? "Yonivargah
Kalasariram - The Mother's group of sources comprises the group of
obscuring energies; Jnanadhistanam Matrka - The Mother is the place of
knowledge." Matrka - the yoga of the symbolism of Sanskrit is the "yoga
of the hidden Mother" (yes- The Mother from Freaks.) Aum Hrdayam! (AUM
is Where the Heart Is!)
".... pale blue colored iris ... presents the circle ... puts the glory out to hide ....I can feel it coming back again ... like a ruling thunder chasing the wind ... forces pulling from the center of the Earth again ... I can feel it ..."~LIVE, Lightning Crashes
A nation grieving from the horror of thousands of innocent people ... who had gone to work on a day like any other day ... and then an hour later...
... were ... burning ... screaming ... plummeting to their deaths in utter terror .... victims of the religious nightmares of madmen ...
... their loved ones .... crying .... vomiting ....
... stunned to the point of medical shock ... dysfunction ....
... apathy ....
.... anger ....
..... hopelessness ...
Then ... a few months later ....
A concert ....
A band with a conscious singer .....
A young man who is not only a rock singer .... but who is embodied consciousness ... dedicated to the service of LOVE .... of dissolving his very self into the Oneness beyond ego.
And, NO ... I'm not kidding ...
And, YES .... I'm talking about "Ed from LIVE" .....
... notice the back of his head in the following video .... that's a shiksa ... a yogic topknot .... an insignia of discipleship to Shiva ... the embodied, non-dual consciousness beyond ego ....
Is there REALLY a power to songs like this, "beyond the song"{?} .... is there REALLY such a thing as "integral art" ... involving a consciousness-to-consciousness connection between artist and audience .... is it true, that, in the words of Ken Wilber (in this video clip, where he and "Ed from LIVE" present together) ... that "the power of integral art is determined by the consciousness of the artist"?
Is it possible that a single song from a rock band hailing from a working-class town in Pennsylvania could actually help to literally heal the soul of a grieving nation?
Watch ...
Listen ....
Feel ....
OPEN ......
... and see if maybe, just maybe .... you too are not just a little bit ... OVERCOME ...
Yes, Powerful.
Yes, Amazing ....
.... but does this song still have impact ... relevance .... in 2008 .... 2009?
I'll let the following video offer the answer .....
HINT: Start paying really close attention at roughly 2:28 ....
"This plastic little place is just a step amongst the stairs ... and I am overcome ... this beautiful drowning ... this beautiful drowning ... this holy water ... is in my lungs ..." ~LIVE, Overcome
"Take me to that place inside ... where I am always free ... Finally ... I can see ... my destiny ... leave all these doubts behind ... in the radiant sea ... of Your Love ..." ~LIVE, Radiant Sea
LIVE uses water as a metaphor for divine, non-dual awareness ... and the Goddess ... the Beloved ... the Mother ... because, well ...
... they're all exactly the same thing .... REALLY.
The craziest thing of all about unified (yogic) awareness .... is that we've been immersed in it our whole lives ... and have blocked our awareness of its reality with what we think is missing!
Imagine singing along with LIVE to one of their best, most popular songs (RUN TO THE WATER) ... and being handed the summation of the world's esoteric wisdom on a platter .... singing the very words .... and quite possibly never even realizing ....
In the Bhagavad-Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna that maybe one in a hundred thousand will truly come to him (realize non-dual awareness) ....
.... and, well ... it looks like there were probably just about a hundred thousand people singing along with Ed in the following video clip .......
... imagine being the one.
... and then take just a moment to be truly still ...
... and realize ...
... that's all you've ever been.
There's also an awesome studio video of RUN TO THE WATER that got some heavy rotation on MTV ... and which is filled with powerful, esoteric symbolism ... and which manages to drive home the essence of spiritual enlightenment and realization in ways that dogmatic religions haven't managed in hundreds of years.
"Embedding" for that clip was disabled, but here's a link to the "official" studio version of RUN TO THE WATER -- Enjoy; it's well worth the "watch"(ing)!!
"Rest easy, baby ... rest easy .... recognize it all as light and rainbows ... smashed to smithereens ... and be happy ..." ~LIVE, Run to the Water
Imagine being at a great rock concert ... and all of a sudden, an awakened yogi, attired in ways identifying him as a Shaivite (adherent of Shiva) takes the stage, and begins to pray.
Then, upon completion of his prayer, the aforementioned yogi goes on to enthusiastically and masterfully outline the esoteric wisdom of the Srimad Siva-Gita and other little-known Hindu scriptures, originally written in Sanskrit -- tying these teachings in with the essential aspects of the path of Merkabah (Chariot, in Hebrew) mysticism, from the ancient Kabbalah of Judaism.
Our yogi then finishes his presentation by concluding with a simple, unequivocal insight, concerning how connecting with your inherent inner awareness of the true nature of Maya creates spiritual enlightenment; self-realization --liberation ...
(Maya means "Illusion" in Sanskrit -- the spiritual illusion that keeps souls in bondage to the wheel of Samsara -- the continuous cycle of birth and death -- suffering and mortal lives caused by ignorance.)
In a nutshell -- this awakened yogi, in a handful of minutes, eloquently outlines how this one simple understanding, followed through to its ultimate destination, ends all suffering and creates freedom beyond imagination.
If you were at a great rock concert -- and it was interrupted like this ... what would you do?
Boo him off the stage?
Reverently offer thanks?
If the following video is any indication ...
You might just leap to your feet, in the midst of a cheering, dancing, singing mass of seventy thousand bodies ...
... while enthusiastically singing along with every happily ingrained, memorized detail of that yogi's esoteric teaching.
Of course, the reason you might respond in that manner ...
... is because you would probably recognize the teachings described above as one of the world-famous rock band LIVE's most popular songs -- multi-platinum-sellingI ALONE ...
... and the awakened yogi described above as "Ed from LIVE."
Oh, by the way -- those teachings I mentioned?
As Ed says at the end of the video:
"It's true ... it's true ..."
There's a LOT more to LIVE's songs than may initially meet the eye or ear.
How much more?
You might just want to find out ....
(And/or simply enjoy the best live video version of LIVE's I ALONE that most of us have ever seen ... it's amazing!!)
"It's easier not to be great // to measure these things with our eyes." ~LIVE, I ALONE
Maya, "Illusion" is derived from the Sanskrit root "Maa" -- To Measure.
Not only do I like it .... a lot ... I'm blown away that a song like this even exists.
In under five minutes ... Ed Kowalczyk (with a little help from his band, LIVE) has managed to summarize the reality of non-dual consciousness ...
to outline the deepest truths of the human condition ...
... offers a brief primer on quantum physics, as it relates to the neuro-physiological basis for spiritual realization ...
... and then outlines the source of all suffering ...
... and finishes by clearly presenting the solution ... the way to freedom from all suffering ...
... the one quality which allows enlightened masters to be free from all suffering ...
... the same one quality that also allows enlightened masters (in every place, every time) to be free to bless the world around them ...
... that same one quality which allows enlightened masters to uplift and to liberate their fellow humans ...
... the same one qualitythat gives everyone -- all of us -- each and every one of us -- the key to being able not only to enjoy that same freedom from all suffering ... that same liberation into enlightenment ...
... but to also offer liberation and enlightenment ...
... to freely give it ...
... to anyone ...
... to everyone ...
... to enrich the lives of those around us ...
... every single moment ...
-- to truly LOVE.
AND ...
Ed manages this in one, catchy, inspirational song.
In under five minutes.
WOW.
Think it might just be worth checking out?
Interested?
Hint: start paying really close attention at 3:20.
"... we spend all of our lives goin' out of our minds ... lookin' back to our birth ... forward to our demise .... even scientists say ... everything is just light ... not created ... destroyed ... but eternally bright ......" ~LIVE, They Stood Up For Love
