“When I find myself in times of trouble mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, ‘Let it be’”

All four of the Beatles had more than their fair share of troubles, much of which comes with the pressures of fame and the machinations of business when it comes into contact with the arts and creativity. At one level they were four ordinary working-class guys from Liverpool but, simultaneously and paradoxically, they were unique and ingenious as individuals and as a close group of friends.

How they handled the unprecedented challenges that came with their mind-boggling level of success as young men is laid out both consciously and unconsciously in the lyrics of many of their songs. I think they can be used by all of us as reminders to practice mindfulness on the one hand, and to benefit from listening to the beauty and insight of their songs. We can listen mindfully, with effortless but clear attention, so that it seems we are hearing the tune, the harmonies and the words for the first time.

Let’s start with clear thinking. Paul McCartney’s words again. “Life is very short and there’s no time for fussing and fighting my friend… We can work it out”. In this beautiful song there’s not just insight and clarity, but a sense of what matters in life, and a compassionate view of the other person. You can almost hear McCartney having the conversation with the other person, and the fear of the other being hurt by mindless knee-jerk reactions.

George Harrison wrote some of the most spiritual and deeply introspective songs of any music artist of our time. In the song “I Me Mine” on their last album “Let it Be” he sings mournfully about the band falling out and becoming self-serving. “All I can hear, I me mine I me mine I me mine”. As with McCartney you can hear the combination of loss and wishing it were otherwise.

Poets and other artists often have great mindful insights without even being aware that they are doing so. But all four members of The Beatles studied eastern philosophies and mindfulness, and consciously put what they learned from these experiences into their later songs.

John Lennon’s classic Strawberry Fields Forever is a case in point. At first listening it may sound like a nonsense, drug-influenced song. “Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about”. But this is in fact one of the great insights of mindfulness and modern science alike. What we think is real is only our mind’s interpretation or reworking of sensory input. This is especially important to understand regarding our emotional reactions to events. The mind creates feelings of depression, sadness, worry, anxiety and we automatically think what it’s telling us about life a situation is real. Often it’s not. Usually our automatic reaction sees the worst-case scenario, and a few moments of quiet observation can lead us to a much more positive and helpful response.

Lennon becomes even more explicit and insightful. “Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.” This is precisely what mindfulness teaches us from observing moment by moment experiences of our mind and the outside world. We are blinkered, “eyes closed”. We don’t see the full picture, only what our closed eyes, our automatic reactions, tell us. And what does it tells us? It causes us to misunderstand all we see.

This is the cause of most of our woes in life, a blinkered, misunderstood series of responses to events in life. It’s also the cause of all the world’s political woes. This inability to see what is real is tragic and devastating to many.

On a totally different front, but just as important, if not as profound, is Ringo Starr’s late response to the tensions and struggles of the final period of the Beatles as band. Always dismissed as the least creative, and self-deprecating by nature, Ringo still had some beautiful moments of insight and emotional intelligence.

The song “Octopus’s Garden” is, like the most famous song he sang, “Yellow Submarine” often considered a song for children, but consider the lyrics from a point of view of four close friends falling apart.

“I’d like to be under the sea in an octopus’s garden in the shade… I’d ask my friends to come and see… we would be warm below the storm in our little hideaway beneath the waves… we would sing and dance around because we know we can’t be found.”

How poignant is this? How eloquent an expression of wanting to escape pain and pressures, and try to find a space where dear friends could recuperate and perhaps recover their true relationships?

Back to McCartney again. “And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make”.

There is magic in music and wisdom in lyrics. Try to understand afresh, in a different, mindful way, what messages may arise in your mind from listening to the old songs you know and love. Mindful listening can transform your mind and make it come alive again.

As the Beatles sang in the exquisite song Blackbird “All your life you were only waiting for this moment to be free”. Make the most of your moments. They are all you have.