This is a YouTube video titled "Eckhart Tolle Sings Ode To Joy" created in December 2015. The content features Eckhart Tolle discussing the meaning and significance of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," including a translation of the poem by Schiller and the concept of joy as a divine, unifying force. He also introduces a flash mob performance of the piece in Sabadel, Spain, highlighting the spontaneous reactions of the audience. The video blends a lecture-style presentation with musical appreciation and cultural commentary.
And now on to Joy. Now, Joy, what piece of music do you think comes to mind? Yes, the Ode to Joy, which has been around for 200 years or so, or something like that. Beethoven, the Ninth Symphony, the last movement, and it's called the Ode to Joy. Most of you will know what I'm talking about. And those of you who are not familiar with classical music. If I sing it, then you will know what it is. Unfortunately, I'm very bad at singing. But it goes like. And now I can't stop. I'm better at it than I thought. Now, I'd like to give you the translation, because many people are familiar with the tune and the song, but perhaps not so many people know what it actually means. Now, the words Beethoven took from the poet Schiller, who wrote this poem, Ode to Joy, which is a praise of joy. So I'll just give you the beginning of the. What I just sang, or if you can call it singing. The translation of this reads, joy, beautiful, divine spark. Now, Joy. The poet personifies the state of joy, so he speaks of joy as if joy were a person. Joy, beautiful, divine spark. Daughter from Elysium. Elysium is a celestial realm in Greek mythology. So joy is the daughter comes, in other words, comes from this, the celestial realm. It is something divine. We enter your sanctuary burning with fire. Further, O heavenly being. Still addressing Joy. O heavenly being. Your magic brings together what custom or convention has sternly divided, so it reunites what human custom has divided. All men shall become brothers. Of course, that includes sisters. All men shall be. And that includes women. It's humans. All humans shall become brothers and sisters. Where your gentle wings hover. The gentle wings of joy. That is a translation of the old beginning of the Ode to Joy. So it brings you back to the state of connectedness with all other humans. And therefore there is something divine in the state of joy. That is the essence of this poem that Beethoven liked so much that he put it to music. It goes on later. There are more lines which we don't need now, but towards the end, it has this beautiful. Be embraced millions, this kiss to the whole world that is towards the Angren says, dear gods unveiled. And then there's the celestial voices of the choir. Beautiful piece. It's absolutely divine. Especially the message that it contains. Now, I'm not going to just play the whole piece here. There's a particular version of it that I discovered that is called the flash mob version of it. Now, I love flash mobs. I don't know if everybody is familiar with that. Term, it means when a group of people come together and do something very strange or unusual, unexpectedly. Now, flash mobs are not spontaneous because they need to be planned beforehand, but they disrupt the normal workings of routine, everyday life or existence. So, for example, you get flash mobs when people like 200 people in a public place suddenly freeze for five minutes in whatever position they happen to be in. And then all the people who don't know what's going on, they go, what happened? In a way, you could say it has no particular purpose, but perhaps there is a purpose. And often it awakens people out of their habitual slumber. And sometimes flash mobs is music that suddenly a group of people begin to perform a piece of music. It looks totally spontaneous, but of course they all plan to do it. But all the people who experience that are transported into a state of astonishment. And this is the piece here, which has been around the Internet and some of you may know it, some people say, oh, I don't like this, because it was financed by a bank and it's used as a commercial in the same way that our first piece that we saw this evening is a commercial. But if that is a commercial, it doesn't say, you need to use our bank in order to be in a state of joy. No, they just financed it and here it is. So there's no link between the bank and. I have no objection to it whatsoever. If they spend their money and sell something beautiful like that that brings joy to people, why object to that? Now, where this happened was in Spain, in a small city near Barcelona, Sabadel. And the piece is called the Sabadel Flash Mobile. The musicians are professional musicians. Now, the most beautiful thing, apart from the music, and it's a short version of it, just five minutes or so, the most moving thing, apart from the music itself, is the reaction of the people who don't know what's going on and how they become transformed from the habitual state into suddenly and feeling, experiencing joy or astonishment. They are stopped in their track, their mind stopped, and think, oh, son. So all the different reactions of people are very moving, very touching. So let's watch it now. The Sabadel Flash Mob. Here we go.
