Life Takes Its Tolle – Part 3 of 3
A Little More Love by Peter Bloom Band
Sorry this took a little longer than anticipated, but at last here is the final part of my EPIC three-part blog on comparisons between songs from Peter Bloom Band’s debut CD (Random Thoughts – from a paralyzed mind) and Eckhart Tolle’s recent book – A New Earth.
Whereas in part two of this blog, “Walls” seemed to parallel many of Tolle’s views on the core questions of life faced by humankind, this final part will show how “A Little More Love” closely relates to Tolle’s insights as to possible answers or solutions to those questions.
The song begins by pondering a simple possibility – what if we were faced with the realization that the moment in which we are living is the only moment we have (“If for a moment just a moment’s all we had, would one word be enough?”) On the surface, this could be interpreted as the moment being our “last” moment on earth. What one word could we say, hear, read, or write that would somehow give meaning and purpose to our existence? What would we think, feel, say or do, if we treated every moment as though it were our last. Suddenly, life would be all the more precious indeed. A concept such as this could drive us mad with fear and desperation. Perhaps a better way to look at it is to treat every moment of your life as though it were your first! Imagine the possibilities! It is this concept of only ever truly having (living, experiencing) the moment in which we find ourselves that will set us free to enjoy life and live it to its fullest. So what is the purpose of life? Tolle would likely say that the answer is in the question. Life is the purpose. That’s all we can really control – life right now. And by control, we can’t necessarily make everything we want to happen happen. But we can control our reaction to any given situation, and in so doing affect our perception (and experience) of life at that moment. There is in fact no purpose in worrying about the future. A friend recently said to me that worrying is like paying interest on a debt you may never have. Dwelling on the past is equally pointless, as it is impossible to change. Life…NOW…is all we have! How we come to terms with this realization is the subject of the rest of the song.
The following two lines of the song ask: “If for a moment we could wipe out all the bad, would one word be enough?” What one word could be powerful enough to rid us of all the evil in the world? “Sorry” perhaps? Not likely! So how do we tap into the essence of this mono-momentary situation? Tolle suggests the exercise of observing nature as though it were the very first time you had ever done so. Don’t try to assign labels to anything…just admire and enjoy it. This idea is quite similar to the first pre-chorus of
“Talk like you’ve never made a sound
Let everything around inspire you
Thank God for every morning
With every breath be born anew
Yes you know it’s true.”
Imagine talking as though you had never before made a sound. How thrilled would you be? What would your first word(s) be? Letting everything around inspire you, being thankful for every morning, being reborn with every breath – these are all examples of being truly present in the moment in which you find yourself. The more present you are, the more truly thankful and awestruck with life you will be…and the more inspired, motivated, and ALIVE you will feel! Tolle refers to this feeling as “awakening”.
I will leave the chorus (title) line until the end of this blog. For now, let’s look at the next verse. The first half is as follows:
The second half of the verse ponders: “If for a moment there were silence on the earth, would our ears hear it now?” What if we truly had a moment with no distractions – no TVs, computers, music, cell phones, video games…or even books? Nothing but silence and you. Now we’re touching on another of Tolle’s keys to achieving inner peace and a sense of purpose. It’s a practice as old as humankind. Tolle and others refer to concepts such as “meditation” and “prayer”, but these unfortunately often connote ascribing to a particular religious or spiritual belief or practice. So in order to avoid this trap, think of it simply as being in silence. It is only when we are truly silent, and the world around us presents no distractions – only harmony – that we can actually feel who we are. Not know or think who we are, but really feel it. Needless to say it is very difficult to achieve this sort of true silence in which we might catch a figurative “glimpse” into the essence of our being. But as rare and fleeting as these moments of pure insight are, it is a most worthwhile pursuit.
The subsequent pre-chorus again suggests exercises similar to Tolle’s concept of living each moment as though it were the first moment of life, and hence to fill oneself with…hope.
“Walk like you’ve never touched the ground
And let your steps resound with fiery youth
Find hope in every cloud above
With every drop of rain let love wash right over you”
Again, by letting every step feel like your first ever, by maintaining a youthful and hopeful outlook, even the difficult times (the clouds and rain) will resound with life!
This next verse is often interpreted as a “We Are The World”-type, global-minded, “beak-out-the-lighters-and/or-cell phones” rallying cry! While it can indeed be seen as such, it can also be examined on a very individual, personal level:
“If for a moment we turned anger into song
Would our words reach the sun?
If for a moment we conspired to get along
Would our hearts bleed as one?”
Note this is a deliberately sarcastic, and slightly ironic use of the word “conspiring”, considering its context. It is done to underscore how seemingly impossible living in peace with one another is. As I said above, this verse could be interpreted as a global move toward peace. Or it could just as easily represent the easing of tension between two individuals – be they neighbors, friends, enemies, lovers, siblings, etc. I would argue, as I believe would Tolle, that if every individual quarrel were indeed settled all around the world, the likelihood of any real global conflict would be greatly reduced if not eliminated. Is this pure fantasy? Perhaps. But I would certainly not be averse to testing the theory. Surely no harm would come of it!
The final pre-chorus lays everything on the line. The concept of speaking for the first time is reiterated (“Talk like you’ve never made a sound”), and then a crucial concept of Tolle (and many other thinkers, such as Deepak Chopra) is echoed in the lines, “Let everything around light up the world inside of you.” Put another way, the world we perceive is the world we create, both literally and figuratively. On the surface, if you tell yourself that you are going to have a bad day, chances are you will! The world has a funny way of fulfilling that sort of prophecy. On a far deeper (virtually intangible) level, the actual (“physical”) world itself exists only insofar as each of us experiences and perceives it internally. This is a tough one to swallow, I admit. But perhaps a helpful way of looking at it is to imagine your perception of the world if you were dead. You would have no perception, at least in a physical sense, since your physical “receptors” (sense of smell, sight, hearing, touch, taste) would cease to function. So what world would exist, as far as you were concerned? None. As far as you are concerned, the world will effectively “end” when you die. Another way of interpreting the “world inside of you” is the “life force”, the “source”, the “universal consciousness”, to which we are all connected, and of which we are all a part. Put simply, it is that from which all of creation emanates. It is the part of us that connects us all to one another. It is timeless and formless. And it can never die. That, too, is the “world” inside of you. Imagine “lighting up” that world inside of you for all the rest of us to see…now imagine if we ALL did the same!
This is what the last few lines are saying: “Each hour is now or never.” In other words, every moment matters. “Reach out and help each other through – that’s what we’ve got to do.” Ultimately, we are in this together, like the cells of a body. If the every cell just decided to do its own thing without any concern for the greater good of the body, the body would soon fall apart. Imagine if heart cells just decided they wanted to be tongue tissue, because they wanted to taste food too. Is this too abstract perhaps? Then simply imagine cells turning on other cells and killing them…there’s really no need to imagine this scenario – we have all at least witnessed, if not experienced, the effects of cancer on the body, and on those around the cancer victim. So Tolle would argue that instead of finding fault with those around us, instead of trying to hurt or outdo those around us, we would be better off to acknowledge the basic sameness we all share at our core level of being, and to help each other to avoid getting bogged down by our often overblown and misguided egos, and the false sense of security we tend to seek out via material gain.
I said I would leave the title line (chorus) until the end…and here we are. The concepts examined above may at first be either difficult to grasp, or simply seem far-fetched and unrealistic. But I would argue that it is only when we fully acknowledge and accept what most of us deem “unreal” as being that which is the only true reality…then and only then will we be fully “awake”, fully alive. And what is that one true reality? LOVE – pure and simple. Not romantic or lustful love. I’m referring to love at its essence, which is the wellspring of creation. To truly love unconditionally is to create, and to nurture and protect creation, without expecting reciprocation. The expression “God is love” is more than a motto adopted by certain religious groups. It is the essential truth underlying our very existence, and that of the universal consciousness of which we are all a part. Although I am not restricting this idea to Christianity, the concept of the Holy Trinity serves as a good model to illustrate the nature of our existence. In Christianity, however, the notion of “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” is applied exclusively to God/Jesus. At the risk of being accused of blasphemy, I would argue that it truly applies to each and every one of us. The “Father” component is God, or the Source, or the Creator, or the Universe, or Mother Nature – that from which everything originates. “Son” is the human (physical) “child” or “offspring” (male or female) of the Creator. “Holy Spirit” is that “world inside of us” that I wrote of above. It is the timeless, formless essence (observer) within each of us that connects us to the Creator, and thus to each other. The nature of every human being is therefore a tri-faceted intertwining of Creator, Creation, and Spirit.
LOVE is at the core of this identity. LOVE is the truth holds this world together. With the current state of affairs on both an individual and global level, I hope we can all agree on one thing: “We just need a little more LOVE.”
Thanks for reading. Peace.
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