Tao Te Ching

The Power of Goodness, the Wisdom Beyond Words
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John Lennon

1940 – 1980 CE

Poet of our age, 20th Century social conscience, inscrutable, uncompromising, brave and outrageous; John Lennon personifies the Lao Tzu lineage and left a lasting and profound impact on the international evolution of consciousness. Uncompromising psychological prophet, he distilled and magnified both our dark side shadows and bright, golden age potentials. Reviled by the Nixon administration and investigated by the FBI, he’s now number 8 on the list of 100 Greatest Britons. Anthem writer for the counterculture and the anti-war movement, reviled by the Nixon administration and investigated by the FBI, he’s now number 8 on the list of 100 Greatest Britons.

Eras

Sources

Magical Mystery Tour

Rubber Soul

Unlisted Sources

Quotes by John Lennon (48 quotes)

“A pretty face may last a year or two; but pretty soon they’ll see what you can do.”

Chapters: 12. This Over That

Themes: Marriage Beauty

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“As soon as your born they make you feel small, by giving you no time instead of it all… A working class hero is something to be.”

Chapters: 72. Helpful Fear

Themes: Obstacles

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“Everything is true and not true about everything. That’s one thing I’ve learned.”

Chapters: 45. Complete Perfection

Themes: Paradox

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“For those of you in the cheap seats I'd like ya to clap your hands to this one; the rest of you can just rattle your jewelry!”

Chapters: 44. Fame and Fortune

Themes: Equality

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“Half of what I say is meaningless, but I say it just to reach you.”

Chapters: 48. Unlearning

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“How can I go forward when I don't know which way I'm facing?”

Chapters: 63. Easy as Hard

Themes: Confusion

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“I'm not afraid of death because I don't believe in it. It's just getting out of one car, and into another.”

Chapters: 50. Claws and Swords

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“I'm not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I've always been a freak. So I've been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I'm one of those people.”

Chapters: 2. The Wordless Teachings

Themes: Change

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“I'm not really a career person; I'm a gardener, basically.”

Chapters: 59. The Gardening of Spirit

Themes: Agriculture

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“Imagine all the people, living for today.”

Chapters: 37. Nameless Simplicity

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“Imagine no possessions.”

Chapters: 75. Greed

Themes: Materialism

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“Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do - nothing to kill or die for, no religions too.”

Chapters: 18. The Sick Society

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“Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do…
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...”

Chapters: 78. Water

Themes: Greed

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“Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too”

Chapters: 71. Sick of Sickness

Themes: War

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“It matters not who you love, where you love, why you love, when you love or how you love, it matters only that you love.”

Chapters: 69. No Enemy

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“It's weird not to be weird.”

Chapters: 41. Distilled Life

Themes: Paradox

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“Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.”

Chapters: 41. Distilled Life

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“Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV, and you think you're so clever and classless and free… A working class hero is something to be.”

Chapters: 35. The Power of Goodness

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“Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be.”

Chapters: 61. Lying Low

Themes: Letting Go

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“Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends.”

Chapters: 31. Victory Funeral

Themes: War Conflict

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“Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.”

Chapters: 18. The Sick Society

Themes: Nationalism

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“Peace is not something you wish for; It's something you make, Something you do , Something you are, And something you give away.”

Chapters: 61. Lying Low

Themes: Peace

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“The more I see, the less I know for sure.”

Chapters: 38. Fruit Over Flowers
65. Simplicity: the Hidden Power of Goodness

Themes: Wisdom

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“There's room at the top they are telling you still, but first you must learn how to smile as you kill, if you want to be like the folks on the hill… A working class hero is something to be.”

Chapters: 9. Know When to Stop

Themes: Conformity

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“They did not tell us that we were born as whole, and that no-one in our lives deserve to carry on his back such responsibility of completing what is missing on us: we grow through life by ourselves. If we have a good company it’s just more pleasant.”

Chapters: 62. Basic Goodness

Themes: Basic Goodness

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“Trying to please everybody is impossible - if you did that, you'd end up in the middle with nobody liking you. You've just got to make the decision about what you think is your best, and do it.”

Chapters: 33. Know Yourself

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“We all shine on...like the moon and the stars and the sun...we all shine on...come on and on and on...”

Chapters: 25. The Mother of All Things

Themes: Moon

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“When I cannot sing my heart, I can only speak my mind.”

Chapters: 79. No Demands

Themes: Music

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“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”

Chapters: 72. Helpful Fear

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“Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup,
They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe.”

Chapters: 56. One with the Dust

Themes: Water

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“You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!”

Chapters: 51. Mysterious Goodness

Themes: True Self

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“Imagine there's no countries, it isn't hard to do”

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“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together”

from Magical Mystery Tour

Themes: Oneness

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“Goo goo g'joob.”

from Magical Mystery Tour

Themes: Delusion

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“Living is easy with eyes closed misunderstanding all you see.”

from Magical Mystery Tour

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“But you know I know when it's a dream”

from Magical Mystery Tour

Chapters: 49. No Set Mind

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“There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done, nothing you can sing that can’t be sung... all you need is love”

from Magical Mystery Tour

Themes: Love

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“Doesn’t have a point of view, knows not where he’s going to… isn’t he a bit like you and me?”

from Rubber Soul

Themes: Wu Wei

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“There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be.”

from Magical Mystery Tour

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“He's as blind as he can be, just sees what he wants to see… Isn't he a bit like you and me?”

from Rubber Soul

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“You tell me it's the institution… You'd better free your mind instead.”

Themes: Revolution

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“A mistake is only an error, it becomes a mistake when you fail to correct it.”

Themes: Mistakes

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“Creativity is a gift. It doesn't come through if the air is cluttered.”

Themes: Creativity

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“There are no problems, only solutions.”

Themes: Problems

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“I once had a girl or should I say she once had me”

from Rubber Soul

Themes: Sex

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“You're telling all those lies about the good things that we can have if we close our eyes”

from Rubber Soul

Themes: Lies Ignorance

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“The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility.”

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“If being an egomaniac means I believe in what I do and in my art or music, then in that respect you can call me that... I believe in what I do, and I'll say it.”

Themes: Confidence

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Quotes about John Lennon (5 quotes)

“To mention the Beatles is to evoke an image of non-melodic, Oriental, and environmental resonance.”

Marshall McLuhan 1911 – 1980 CE
from War and Peace in the Global Village

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“The Beatles are mutants. Prototypes of evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with a mysterious power to create a new human species, a young race of laughing freemen.”

Timothy Leary 1920 – 1996 CE
Pioneering psychonaut, performing philosopher, and counter-cultural hero

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“John Lennon is a saint and he's heavy-duty, and he's great and I love him. But at the same time, he's such a bastard – but that's the great thing about him, you see?”

George Harrison 1943 – 2001 CE
Guitar-playing philanthropist

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“he was an enigma to himself. He was very mercurial, felt differently on different days, wrote differently on different days. His body of songs comprises really upbeat, earnest, simple things like 'All You Need is Love' and deep dark painful jagged weird obsessive unknowable songs like 'Happiness is a Warm Gun.' The range of that sensibility is really quite extraordinary... he is really deeply fascinating and quite unknowable... He’s really kind of like an American stuck in a British body. He was the most American member of the band”

Tim Riley 1960 CE –

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“He definitely was a hero, an innovator in perfect tune with his time who brought a new spiritual depth into popular music.”

Joseph Campbell 1904 – 1987 CE via Shan Dao
Great translator of ancient myth into modern symbols
from Power of Myth

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