The Search For Enlightenment

When life gets a little messy, I tend to go for familiar things from life, things that help me feel more comfortable. While working from home today, I took the opportunity to listen to some classic, and very familiar music, the Genesis album, And Then There Were Three, released in 1978.

I have loved Genesis since seeing their inaugural tour way back in 1969 and can still remember the dismay when Peter Gabriel left the band. He was such a figurehead, being the lead singer, we wondered whether the band could survive. And Then There Were Three answered that question, and is still one of my favourite albums.

Maybe because of my heightened sense of awareness, maybe because I am looking for meaning in events, I don’t know, but suddenly a set of lyrics that I have known for thirty five years, seemed more relevant than they had ever been before …

Undertow

The curtains are drawn
Now the fire warms the room.
Meanwhile outside
Wind from the north-east chills the air,
It will soon be snowing out there.

And some there are
Cold, they prepare for a sleepless night.
Maybe this will be their last fight.

But we’re safe in each other’s embrace,
All fears go out as I look on your face –

Better think awhile
Or I may never think again.
If this were the last day of your life, my friend,
Tell me, what do you think you would do then?

Stand up to the blow that fate has struck upon you,
Make the most of all you still have coming to you,
Lay down on the ground and let the tears run from you,
Crying to the grass and trees and heaven finally on your knees

Let me live again, let life come find me wanting.
Spring must strike again against the shield of winter.
Let me feel once more the arms of love surround me,
Telling me the danger’s past, I need not feel the icy blast again.

Laughter, music and perfume linger here
And there, and there,
Wine flows from flask to glass and mouth,
As it soothes, confusing our doubts.

And soon we feel,
Why do a single thing to-day,
There’s tomorrow sure as I’m here.

So the days they turn into years
And still no tomorrow appears.

Better think awhile
Or I may never think again.
If this were the last day of your life, my friend,
Tell me, what do you think you would do then?

Stand up to the blow that fate has struck upon you,
Make the most of all you still have coming to you,
Lay down on the ground and let the tears run from you,
Crying to the grass and trees and heaven finally on your knees

Let me live again, let life come find me wanting.
Spring must strike again against the shield of winter.
Let me feel once more the arms of love surround me,
Telling me the danger’s past, I need not feel the icy blast again.

~ Tony Banks 1978

Genesis have provided much of the soundtrack for my life, sometimes happy, sometimes not so happy. Now Nichiren Buddhism is providing the anchor, the Honzon of my life and between the two, I am striving to pull things back together again and move forward.