Walk a Sacred Path #4 of 8 Release Self Importance
28th Oct 2024
“My freedom cannot be separated from your freedom”
Nelson Mandela
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The last new track recorded by the epic band The Beatles before their breakup in April 1970 was ‘I Me Mine’ and it was written by George Harrison about his revelations regarding the ego whilst on LSD.
The lyrics go like this
“All through the day I me mine, I me mine, I me mine All through the night I me mine, I me mine, I me mine Now they're frightened of leaving it Everyone's weaving it Going on strong all the time All through the day I me mine”
领英推荐
“… All I can hear I me mine, I me mine, I me mine Even those tears I me mine, I me mine, I me mine No-one's frightened of playing it Everyone's saying it Flowing more freely than wine All through the day I me mine”
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Later in 1980 George Harrison’s autobiography of the same name he referred to the song and said,
“Having LSD was like someone catapulting me out into space. The LSD experience was the biggest experience that I’d had up until that time…
Suddenly I looked around and everything I could see was relative to my ego, like ‘that’s my piece of paper’ and ‘that’s my flannel’ or ‘give it to me’ or ‘I am’. It drove me crackers, I hated everything about my ego, it was a flash of everything false and impermanent, which I disliked. But later, I learned from it, to realise that there is somebody else in here apart from old blabbermouth. Who am ‘I’ became the order of the day. Anyway, that’s what came out of it, ‘I Me Mine’. The truth within us has to be realised. When you realise that, everything else that you see and do and touch and smell isn’t real, then you may know what reality is, and can answer the question ‘Who am I?’”
To me the challenge of the ego is a paradox. On the one hand we are challenged by mystical teachings to embrace the notion of the hero’s journey and to assume responsibility – on the other we are cautioned by the temptations of power and the lure of what Star Wars would refer to as the ‘Dark side’.
What can we learn from this and how could we apply these teachings?
To continue reading go to my Substack https://acping.substack.com/p/walk-a-sacred-path-4-of-8-release