Imagine

Shortly before Christmas, on my Facebook account, I came across a couple of folks posting their thoughts on John Lennon. The discussion started innocently enough with a former classmate from high school posting a link to Lennon's "Happy Christmas". Another classmate began telling him her beliefs about John Lennon and why she doesn't celebrate his life.

There was a 1979 "WKRP in Cincinnati" episode that used as its plot line a protest of WKRP because it was playing John Lennon's "Imagine". I found it hard to believe, in what I thought were the enlightened '70s, that there were still people like that. But, here we are, 30 years later, and it seems as if some people are still categorizing people; countries; faiths; lifestyles; as being "right" or "wrong". Like all of us, John Lennon was off the mark on some things, but his ideas on Peace; Love and Understanding, are not among those.

I'll call my childhood friend, "Tess". Tess brought up the "we are more popular than Jesus" statement given in an interview in 1965, less than two years into "Beatlemania". First of all, even when Jesus was here in flesh, he wasn't that popular. Popularity wasn't the aim of Jesus. It was Enlightenment. The often used term, Jesus Christ, is incorrect. It is Jesus the Christ. Christ, coming from the Greek Christos, which means "enlightened". Jesus the Enlightened. John Lennon was 25 years-old when he made the comment. God help any of us it we are to be judged forever for something we said at 25. Imagine being a Beatle in 1965? The Beatles had the combined popularity of Elvis and Frank Sinatra; The Beach Boys and all of the Motown roster!. The comment was true. But, if John would have said "water, is more popular than Jesus", that would have been true too. But, like Jesus, Lennon was more interested in Love; Peace and Brotherhood, than popularity. It was clear he struggled with all of the adulation and idolization. (As did Jesus).

A person who writes "Give Peace a Chance" and "Happy Christmas (War is Over)" is reflecting the message of Jesus. Jesus came to say: "Love thy neighbor as yourself". Lennon was closer to the idea of Christianity than most. Through the second half of the 1970s he literally gave away his identity as a Beatle, and as a solo artist, to try to be who we all really are: a child of God. He grappled with all the temptations human beings contend with and through it all, used his gifts from God to make some of the most beautiful and important music of all time.

The Lennon detractor I speak of, who certainly isn't alone, sited the song "Imagine" as more reason to dismiss John. "Imagine"; which is #3 on "Rolling Stones Top 500 Songs of All Time" list, and according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, is the best song of the last 100 years; says in its lyrics:

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

The Bible clearly states that "The Kingdom is Within" and "The Kingdom of God is at hand". Heaven is a state of Mind. So is Hell. You can find Hell in a Beverly Hills mansion and Heaven in a holler in Tennessee. Regular readers know that I believe God is Love. You and I are from God's Imagination. The whole Universe is God's Imagination. We Imagine what our lives are and how they shall be. Heaven or Hell.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

We, have imagined all the separations that exist between God's children. Most indigenous peoples never create "countries". That was what we did to keep people from other places out of our "country". And because we did that, mother country (instead of mother earth) had to be defended and killed for. John Lennon is simply saying; "imagine", if that wasn't the case, if we were One as we in the Spiritual practices know in Truth, we are. John Lennon wasn't a Communist because he thought it would be nice if there were fewer made up reasons to slaughter each other.

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Is there any doubt that the world is heading this way? The Internet has us connected, almost, Universally. Twitter alone has connected the like minded by the tens of thousands, even, millions. We are figuratively, even literally, re-imagining the present to create a better future.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

In Metaphysics, we know that all forms were once the stuff of Spirit, and will again be someday. We "possess" this physical body but it will pass away as we transmute into what is next. I have nothing against "possessions". I'm typing on a computer that, I guess, I possess for now, but will end up in a landfill where a robot named Wall-E will spend hundreds of years cleaning it up after all possessions have become; un-possessed.

Oh, of course, what about that nasty little reference to "religion" in stanza two? God never created a religion. Jesus never created a religion. By the way, religion is defined as: "a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion." Persons agreed upon. That is what religion is. An agreement among people. As are countries and just about everything else. Not an agreement with God. That's where my agreements are. I agree with God. I agree with Love. I operate with Love; God; in Mind. I operate with God's Law in Mind as well. It is this way that I purposefully Imagine my Life.

There is One Mind. One Life. One Power. One God. John Lennon knew this better than most and he used his God given talents and his realized Consciousness to create more positive expressions of God then 100 million lives of those yet enlightened. And, like Jesus, he was terribly misunderstood and misinterpreted. Like Gandhi and Martin Luther King; Abraham Lincoln and yes, Jesus, he was killed for sharing and showing new insights and a better way out of darkness. Lennon writes in the song "The Ballad of John and Yoko":

Christ you know it ain't easy,
You know how hard it can be.
The way things are going
They're going to crucify me.

Why is it that those who best exhibit God qualities: Peace; Love; Joy; Wisdom; Beauty; Light; Life; and Prosperity; society holds in contempt? The ignorant worship at the alter of ignorance.

John Lennon asked us to simply imagine only a few things. He is both beloved and hated for the Truth he shared.

God Bless my former classmates who with their opposing points of view motivated me to write this piece, about Peace and John Lennon, whose words and voice sing out still to remind us that Peace must be Imagined.

God Bless John Lennon.

God Bless us Everyone.

Sharefully,

~Doug Daniels