The latest manifestation of Australian consciousness leader Leo Drioli’s spiritual odyssey is his highly accessible song “Give it your Love.” His debut album Let Your Spirit Sing will be out in 2013.
Meanwhile, Skope caught up with Drioli to ask him some questions…
All interested in harmony and uplifting emotions are urged to go directly to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpwwlG7Fe28. A free copy of the song can be obtained at: http://leodrioli.fanbridge.com/.
Are you a native Aussie?
Yes, I was born in Adelaide, South Australia, to migrant Italian parents.
When did you first get involved with the consciousness movement?
I had an out-of-body experience when I was 18 years old. My search for truth started soon after. I have been meditating for 37 years. I launched one of the first “New Age” magazines in Australia, Golden Age, in 1988, and have always found immense joy in building bridges into communities via the dissemination of Truth in all its forms. For me, transcending one’s own beliefs and realizing the reality at the heart of all beliefs is my passion and joy. I love meeting people who are seeking truth or have awoken into the “view” that sits beyond the mind as pure awareness, our natural state. This is what drives me and continues to set me free.
For the many of us out there who have only a vague understanding as to what the consciousness movement is — could you tell us in a few lines?
There’s a huge shift that’s sweeping across the planet right now that is calling to everyone’s beingness to come forward. The “consciousness movement” is a name for this shift that has actually been in process forever. It’s really the evolutionary impulse that moves us to seek out deeper meaning to life, to wonder just why we are born and to realize our own true nature as spiritual beings. It’s nothing new … yet, right now we are in the throes of giving birth to a new way of being, a new human if you will. This new way, is a radical shift into Presence, realizing oneself as Presence Itself.
There was a deep turning inward in the 60’s with mainstream culture seeking out life’s purpose through eastern mysticism and meditation, and the music of that time expressed this shift. There was a second major turning in early 2000 with Eckhart Tolle introducing it to the mainstream via his book The Power of Now, and today all our global challenges are once again causing us to stop and question what it’s really all about on a mass scale. Consciousness is always unfolding and evolving, this is what drives us forward in the world, but within each of us is the spark of the Divine that simply looks through our own eyes … this is the One that sits within every heart. As we awaken, we each individually begin to drop our sense of separation and realize the unity that we always already are. It’s a very natural process that lies at the heart of all religions and spiritual belief systems, yet sits just out of their hold in a pure state. This is at the heart of the consciousness movement — available to one and all, yet cannot be controlled by any.
You released a book back in 1996. Your first album won’t come out until 2013. You say song-writing is your greatest joy. Why did you wait so long to put together an album?
I’ve been on a wonderful ride my whole life … our destiny unfolds very naturally if we are on track. I’ve been writing songs, actually chronicling my own unfoldment through my music as part of my spiritual practise you could say, similar to keeping a diary. For all these years Spirit has gifted me with insight and clarity through these soul explorations … and has helped me work through obstacles and gain insight into my true nature.
I always had the intention of releasing my music to the public, but only recently did I finally feel it was the right moment when everything fell naturally into place by meeting Dino Jag, my producer. This is how life works … we actually enter this world with a plan, and at certain moments events are triggered to remind us of this plan and help create the next leg of the journey. If we are open enough, we will recognise these signposts or nudges as our own destiny calling us Home. Honouring these destiny points by firstly recognizing them, then taking appropriate action allows for our life’s path to unfold in the natural way we had intended it to, in the life between lives … before we incarnated into this body, in this lifetime.
So, my music was simply the natural next step in my life’s path … and I’m absolutely loving every minute of the time given to this joyous work.
Are there any current popular bands whose compositions you feel display a largeness of spiritual depth?
I love all music that is inspired by truth. Many bands and styles appeal to me … Okay, right now: Gotye … his music really moves me … also Jason Mraz. In the recent past there have been many bands that inspire and uplift me, for example Oasis with their song “Let there be Love” … a great song that I think addresses this very moment:
“Who kicked a hole in the sky so the heavens would cry over me?
Who stole the soul from the sun in a world come undone at the seams?
Let there be love
Let there be love
I hope the weather is calm as you sail up your heavenly stream
Suspended clear in the sky are the words that we sing in our dreams
Let there be love
Let there be love.”
Is there a particular instrument you believe to be most effective at tapping the spirit?
Not really, in fact we are all instruments and can tap the Divine by simply being present and dropping back in to our true nature. We don’t really require any knowledge or skill to do this, just a willingness to be the receiver … the instrument for Source to communicate through.
Any musician, poet or writer knows this process, it’s what makes us the creative beings that we are. Any musical instrument can be used to tap Spirit really, even a stone or a stick … our own voices … our imaginations. It’s everywhere, music is the vibration of existence … if we listen not only with our ears but with our hearts, we will find we are all musicians already.
In your single “Give it your Love,” you speak of “heaven’s door” — is your idea of heaven similar to the one put forth by longstanding organized religions?
My reference to “Heaven’s Door” is pointing to the present moment. Heaven is available right now, it’s always right here, just that our attention is usually caught on all the other stuff … thoughts and feelings either about what’s in front of us, or we are lost in the past or projecting into the future.
Heaven, it’s actually available and accessible to all those who choose to seek it out. George Harrison said it beautifully in the Beatles tune “The Inner Light”, lyrics inspired by the Tao Te Ching:
“Without going out of my door
I can know all things on earth.
Without looking out of my window
I can know the ways of Heaven.
The farther one travels … the less one knows.
The less one really knows …
Arrive without travelling
See all without looking
Do all without doing …”
So, Heaven is a stateless state, at the heart of all spiritual traditions but beyond any formal religious structure … Heaven is right here … right now, we are swimming in it!
The ongoing spiritual journey can be accessed via Drioli’s newspaper, Inner Self (http://www.innerself.com.au/), or by way of his blog Reflections from Eternal Vastness (http://leodrioli.blogspot.com.au/).
For further edification, head to: www.LeoDrioli.com.
By: Ray Cavanaugh – owleyesgatsby@yahoo.com
