TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
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YOKO ONO, JOHN LENNON, AND THE NON-DUAL MESSAGE AS SHARED BY THEM
While Yoko shared her Eastern understandings with John and thus propelled him further and faster down the “path” than may have happened otherwise (if at all) John did have (1) some early understandings and (2) was raised to “think outside the box” and (3) was raised to be an Enneagram Personality Type Four which paralleled his creativity and would nurture his later disgust with (a) phoniness and image-making and artificiality and disingenuous and hypocrisy and all things fake and would nurture his later attraction to (b) the authentic and the real and the genuine.
Consider the implications of John’s account of an early event:
Did he follow that “long and winding road” which he and Paul wrote about? Absolutely. During the early and middle years with The Beatles, he followed the road of phoniness and image-making and artificiality and hypocrisy and the disingenuous.
That helped generate and heighten the effects of that counterfeit manner of living, effects which led to his internal mental and emotional suffering and the physical pain which also manifested. As it turns out - for many - it is the pain and suffering which can inspire one to begin seeking the authentic and the real and the genuine which they had either tuned into earlier or which they at least had some intimations of along the way.
As a Type Four - which is the same Type Maharaj was and Yoko is and John was - certain characteristics may be present, including
creativity; an admiration of authenticity; rebelliousness; compassion and empathy; intuitiveness; an appreciation of beauty (and not just physical beauty); an appreciation of “the romantic” / romanticism (in nature, in art, in literature, and in relationships, etc.) fostering inspiration, subjectivity, and the primacy of “the individual” vs. the primacy of “the ‘popular’ -ism’s” supported by the non-realized masses, including:
fundamentalism, sensationalism, traditionalism, exceptionalism, patriotism and nationalism, Nazism, totalitarianism, antirationalism, conventionalism, colonialism, territorialism, commercialism and materialism, and consumerism, provincialism, irrationalism, bureaucratism, expansionism, factionalism, barbarianism, creationism, favoritism, fanaticism, militarism, Puritanism, criticism, theocentrism and dogmatism and spiritualism and theism, duality-driven swings between optimism and pessimism, elitism, racism, egoism and egotism, and many, many more.
To review those “-ism’s” which both Type Fours and “the realized” often reject, one might see where those helped to sculpt the final lyrics in the song “Imagine.”
Now, to possibly expand the understanding of the lyrics and message of “Imagine,” let’s look at both the recognition and the criticism of the song:
The “religious” were the most critical of the song back when it was released as well as now. Lennon offered a way for them to have a different understanding:
“If you can imagine a world at peace, with no denominations of religion - not without religion but without this my God-is-bigger-than-your-God thing - then it can be true.”
He said, “The World Church called me once and asked, ‘Can we use the lyrics to 'Imagine' and just change it to 'Imagine one religion'?” He said, “That showed me they didn't understand it at all. It would defeat the whole purpose of the song, the whole message.”
Lennon wrote in the song what author John Blaney described as "a humanistic paean for the people." Blaney wrote, "Lennon contends that global harmony is within our reach, but only if we reject the mechanisms of social control that restrict human potential.”
Rolling Stone's David Fricke commented: "Lennon calls for a unity and equality built upon the complete elimination of modern social order: geopolitical borders, organised religion, and economic class.”
Music critic Paul Du Noyer described "Imagine" as Lennon's "most revered" post-Beatles song.”
Authors Ben Urish and Ken Bielen called it "the most subversive pop song recorded to achieve classic status.” Fricke commented: "'Imagine' is a subtly contentious song, Lennon's greatest combined achievement as a balladeer and agitator.”
Rolling Stone described its lyrics as "Twenty-two lines of graceful, plain-spoken faith in the power of a world - united in purpose - to repair and change itself."
Lennon described the song's meaning and explicated its commercial appeal this way: "Anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, and anti-capitalistic, but because it is sugarcoated it is accepted. Now I understand what you have to do. Put your political message across with a little honey.”
Rolling Stone described it as "an enduring hymn of solace and promise that has carried us through extreme grief, from the shock of Lennon's own death in 1980 to the unspeakable horror of September 11th. It is now impossible to imagine a world without 'Imagine', and we need it more than he ever dreamed.”
Former US President Jimmy Carter said, "in many countries around the world – my wife and I have visited about 125 countries– you hear John Lennon's song 'Imagine' used almost equally with national anthems.”
Former Beatle Ringo Starr defended the song's lyrics during a 1981 interview with Barbara Walters, stating: "John said 'imagine', that's all. Just imagine it.”
Five years after his death - on October 9, 1985 which what would have been Lennon’s 45th birthday - a tear-shaped section of Central Park stretching from 71st to 74th streets along Central Park West was re-named “Strawberry Fields” after The Beatles’ song “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
Across the street from the Dakota Apartments where Lennon was shot and just past the entrance into Strawberry Fields, there is the now-famous grey and white marble “Imagine mosaic” which is the centerpiece of the area. The mosaic was a gift from the city of Naples, Italy.
The first time I returned to New York City after the shooting, I walked the several blocks from my hotel to the entrance to the Dakota and saw the spot inside the gate where Lennon was gunned down.
The first time I returned to New York after Strawberry Fields opened, I had no inclination to see the Dakota; instead, I walked down Central Park West from the hotel where I was staying, crossed the street before reaching the Dakota, entered the park, and walked down to the spot which Lennon would have likely recommended that visitors stop by and view:
Not the Dakota but the mosaic instead:
I stood there for some time in the silence (the same silence being honored by all who had gathered there). I watched some of the visitors who were decorating the mosaic with flowers, and in the silence I recalled the words which the letters in the salutation I often use here represent:
PULLS = Peace, Unity, Love, Light, Sanity.
I was pretty sure John would endorse the sentiment behind that salutation.
Now, the invitation here to each is to also enter into the silence and . . .
IMAGINE.
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THE EXPLANATION
Yeshu'a (Jesus) and Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis were spot on:
"No one shall ever see 'the kingdom of heaven.' It is within"
and
"Heaven and earth shall fade away."
and
"Heaven and hell are not geographic places
"There is no hell."
