So last week I posted the lyrics to a trace song* called "Saving Light" by Garth Emery and Standerwick, with Haliene (an American electropop singer) on vocals. The song was the top trance song of 2017. According to Wikipedia, the lyrics were written by Haliene, Roxanne Emory (Emory's sister and manager), Matthew Steeper, and Karra in 55 minutes. Emery and Standerwick tried various versions before settling on a classic trance interpretation. The lyrics are about bullying, and the music video shows the story of a high school girl being bullied. Money from sale of the song during Feburary last year was donated to an anti-bullying organization. Haliene's soaring vocals certainly are a big contributor to the reason the song did so well.
But the first time I heard the song, it sort of blew the top of my head off, like the picture of the thousand armed Avalokitshvara you see on Tibetan thankas (one of which hangs on my living room wall). I just had to get up and dance. And, a month later, it's still that way. I get this prana in my feet flowing up my back out the top of my head, kind of like a mini-version of the kundalini episode I experienced in the late 1990s. I could not for the life of my figure out why. I've been listening to trance music since the early 2000's, and lately been going to raves and trance festivals, but this was the strongest reaction I've had to a song.
With all due respect to Emory's, Haliene's, and Standerwick's, intentions, I don't think their stated theme was the reason. Bullying is a serious problem and I certainly feel compassion for the victims, but there was something else going on here that I couldn't put my finger on, until today. While I'm fully aware of the issues around reading something into an artist's work that the artist isn't claiming they put there, for me, the lyrics speak to a more spiritual or cosmic theme, a theme broader than the suffering of a single individual, a trans-personal theme so to speak.
Specifically, I feel the lyrics are addressing the Bodhisattva Vow, the vow to be reborn in samsara until every single sentient being is enlightened. The words about standing on the edge where endless meets the end, is about giving up nirvana, which is the end of suffering, for the endless cycle of rebirths. The voices whispering are the voices of all the suffering beings, pulling the bodhisattva back, life after life. In the second verse, the words "You're here, like lightening in my veins" is about prana, which can feel like lightening. Overall, the "you" that's the saving light, is the bodhisattva, so the person standing on the edge is kind of a proto-bodhisattva in the process of transforming into the full-fledged article. There are some aspects of the song that don't quite line up with this interpretation, but overall, I think the song deserves a broader, more spiritual interpretation than the authors originally intended.
The song was sort of an arrow targeted at the heart of my practice.
Whether you believe in rebirth or not is irrelevant I think. You can view it as a metaphor for giving up being comfortable to dive in and help. Or you can wait until you die and see, cause sooner or later you'll find out.
* Trace is a particular sub-genre of Electronic Dance Music known for its high energy, lyrics that often go beyond the usual pop lyrics to encompass drug, spiritual, and religious themes, while, at the same time, being eminently danceable. It originated in Europe, and particularly Berlin, in the mid- to late-1990s. The perfect music for carrying out my meditation teacher's recommendation: "More dancing, less thinking".
Image from https://themettagarden.com/2016/06/22/bodhisattva-vow/
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