isn't that what it feels like to hum, or sing O or AH?
Mantras come to us when we need them
U2 was about to break up.
The chords of this song came to them.
Then the chorus, ONE.
One in Wikipedia:
Creation of ONE:
"During the recording of Achtung Baby, tensions in the band began to rise over the direction of the album. Bono and The Edge favored electronica and dance music explorations, while Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton did not. U2 was on the brink of breaking up when the band rallied around a riff The Edge was trying to write for the bridge of "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)." It inspired the band to write "One," and it changed the band's outlook on the album, helping bring a renewed sense of optimism towards the material they had already recorded. Leaving Berlin on a high note, the band was able to complete the rest of the album in Dublin. It is widely considered, by the band and fans, to be the song that saved U2."
u2 at the Grammys:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iu72EZdVou4
ONE U2
Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you now?
You got someone to blame
You say
One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it
Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well it's
Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to
harry each other
harry each other
One
Have you come here for forgiveness?
Have you come to raise the dead?
Have you come here to play Jesus?
To the lepers in your head
Did I ask too much?
More than a lot.
You gave me nothing,
Now it's all I got
We're one
But we're not the same
Well we
Hurt each other
Then we do it again
You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you've got is hurt
One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One...
One...
Can You hear us coming Lord
Can You hear us call
Feel us knocking
We're knocking at Your door
Commentary
This kind of creativity
the kind we hear in this song,
Only emerges when we feel the conflict of opposites.
When we turn to rhythm to heal us
When we are torn between the opposites:
-Stay or go
-Have a steady job or take a chance
-Be spontaneous or disciplined and safe
-Stay together or break up
In meditation, we listen to the rhythms of life,
feel the rhythms
let them talk to us
vibrate us
enlighten us
illuminate us
nurture us
we give our conflicts to the rhythms
and apprentice ourselves to the underlying harmony.
and life itself generates creative responses that make fusion possible.
Life is always a rhythm of opposites,
breathing in and breathing out
standing up and lying down
male and female
it is always a challenge to transform the tension of opposites
into magnetism and creative tension.
Great bands have much to teach us about meditation,
the path of love and individuality and meditation.
Over the years, being with people as they learn to meditate, I am increasingly surprised and delighted to witness the wisdom that emerges from inside meditators. Healing sounds, images, dances, mudras, come spontaneously to us when we need them and take the time to receive them. Life is there for you. Your own inner life is there for you. Meditation is showing up for the meeting.
Another performance of ONE by Mary Blige and U2
A different venue, showing how U2, out of love for the song, let themselves be Mary's backup band, and just support her to belt it out. The power Mary is channeling is incredible.
Just speaking for myself, meditation and mantra has taught me how to listen to music. Meditation has alerted me to be able to listen deeply. And, I have to say, that music has taught me how to listen to meditation. The two go together – silence and sound. All music has taught me how to hear the silence. It's a good cycle.
Case in point, meditation has helped me to appreciate what U2 and Mary Blige are doing when they sing ONE. It's a chant, that soulful, sad, joyous, redemptive ONE. Hearing them sing makes me understand more of what OM means.
Shiva Puja
Here is an example of really ancient music – a puja to Shiva
Gayatri
And another mantra – Deva Premal and Miten singing the Gayatri mantra. The Gayatri is ancient, it echoes across the millennia.