John Lennon Got It Right In The End

A long time ago a friend of mine considered my temperament to be extremely dire, too existentialist for my young years. He came across a John Lennon album which featured the song 'God' and he exclaimed to me 'That is you, that is just like you!' and he gave it to me and it was his feeling that he was being tongue in cheek. To this day that song has resonated with me and although the years have softened my once rebellious and sometimes bleak outlook, I have to agree with so many of Lennon's rejections and his final observation of a single truth.

It came back to me the other night after a meditation meeting. I love meditation, I love the benefits of the technique, the beauty and simplicity of this art and the playfulness of my relaxed mind inside the space of meditation and the rest it brings. I believe in what Irvin Yalom touched on in 'Staring At The Sun' - that when we are tired our old demons come to do battle with us again. So I think it is extremely important to give the mind a chance to rest and be free to unwind itself.

 At a group meeting the other night I listened to what was termed a 'keynote' speech by a meditation instructor. It was not that he didn't have an argument to make, but that his argument was not backed by any science and that so many of his ideas which were intended to be enlightening were in fact mainstream cliches. The idea that McDonalds is bad, war is the product of ignorance, corporations are greedy ugly monsters.... Until that point I had been ready to give myself up to meditation because of the beauty of this simple art, but when the rhetoric flowed and the ideas did not gel with my inner voice I just had to let it go and I remembered John Lennon and his brilliance.

God is a Concept by which

we measure our pain

I'll say it again

God is a Concept by which

we measure our pain

I don't believe in magic

I don't believe in I-ching

I don't believe in Bible

I don't believe in Tarot

I don't believe in Hitler

I don't believe in Jesus

I don't believe in Kennedy

I don't believe in Buddha

I don't believe in Mantra

I don't believe in Gita

I don't believe in Yoga

I don't believe in Kings

I don't believe in Elvis

I don't believe in Zimmerman

I don't believe in Beatles

I just believe in me...and that reality

The dream is over

What can I say?

the Dream is Over

Yesterday

I was the Dreamweaver

But now I'm reborn

I was the Walrus

But now I'm John

and so dear friends

you'll just have to carry on

The Dream is over