Martin Scorsese’s documentary George Harrison: Living in a Material World is excellent. Coming in at more than three and half hours, it’s also thorough, covering in depth the Beatles decade and Harrison’s contribution to that phenomenon, and the subsequent years until his death in 2001, revealing a man of complex talent, not quite genius, but exquisite talent.

A few things struck me. First, consistent with the values of an age he would in part pioneer, George was a collaborator. He was best so. From the Beatles to his role in Monty Python’s Life of Brian (which I was shocked to find I knew nothing about) to even the playful project The Traveling Wilburys, his was a talent best served plugged in with others.

Second, and much more compellingly, it occurred that George above virtually all others can be argued to have brought eastern spiritual thought to mainstream North American consciousness. Certainly many predated or coincided with him: Alan Watts, Richard Alpert (aka. Ram Dass), Trungpa Rinpoche, Ginsberg, Kerouac, others. But who else had bigger reach than the Beatles in the mid-sixties? Few. None. They were bigger than Jesus.

The ultimately ill-fated relationship to the Maharishi followed by the subsequent psychedelic music of the late 60's and 70's, the proliferation of LSD, bundled with aforementioned characters including Timothy Leary and his lot. It was a wild ambitious project that must still be considered a primary lineage of modern progressive seekers.

Much of George’s philosophy up until his death remained, for lack of a better term, non-dual, at least his rhetorical philosophy. Living in a material world, he enjoyed the excesses of one with addictive tendencies, in a consumerist society, who didn't ultimately believe it’s all real or really matters. He believed in living outside, if not the law, conventions. His statement that, besides being responsible for his son Dhani, he couldn’t think of a good reason to remain in this world, was indicative of this detached mentality. There was something charming about this. The Beatles broke when he was 27 years old. Imagine. All that and finished well before his 30th birthday. It came clear that despite the world holding him in iconic regard, he had, through practice and disintegration, largely stripped that identity, and realized he was as naked, vulnerable and anonymous as the rest of us.

Still, there is something missing in that philosophy, missing in the gestures of those non-dual practitioners who, conveniently caring nothing for this world, still live and move around in it, with little regard to any sense of responsibility for it. I always find it a vacuous position. A comment on Chris’ piece this past week reminded me again of this pet peeve. Something along the lines of ‘it’s all illusion, distinctions are false, wake up and get off the wheel’. While ultimately (ultimately, mind you) true, so many places to hide and duck behind the sentiment. So much assumptive hubris able to dodge any and all approaches. A little boring really.

But this was not the most compelling part of George for me. No, at odds with this part of his philosophy was a genuine care and a sharp mind able to make important distinctions. When he spoke about visiting Haight Ashbury and being appalled by the excess, his capacity to thread the needles eye is evident.

And a few songs post-Beatles stand out for me as aligning to the demands of a post-postmodern approach we still sorely need. I’ve posted the songs and their lyrics in full.

Thank you George. Yours was a soul came here to learn and teach and build bridges and the documentary ends with no sadness, it being clear how thoroughly he had prepared his whole life post-Beatles to exit his body. Again, the humility, vulnerability and understanding of disintegration so evident, so important.

Awaiting On You All

You don't need no love in
You don't need no bed pan
You don't need a horoscope or a microscope
The see the mess that you're in
If you open up your heart
You will know what I mean
Weve been polluted so long
Now here's a way for you to get clean

By chanting the names of the lord and youll be free
The lord is awaiting on you all to awaken and see
Chanting the names of the lord and you'll be free
The lord is awaiting on you all to awaken and see

You don't need no passport
And you don't need no visas
You don't need to designate or to emigrate
Before you can see jesus
If you open up your heart
You'll see he's right there
Always was and will be
He'll relieve you of your cares

By chanting the names of the lord and you'll be free
The lord is awaiting on you all to awaken and see
Chanting the names of the lord and you'll be free
The lord is awaiting on you all to awaken and see

You don't need no church house
And you don't need no temple
You don't need no rosary beads or them books to read
To see that you have fallen
If you open up your heart
You will know what I mean
We've been kept down so long
Someone's thinking that were all green

And while the pope owns 51% of general motors
And the stock exchange is the only thing he's qualified to quote us
The lord is awaiting on you all to awaken and see
By chanting the names of the lord and you'll be free

Any Road

Oh I've been traveling on a boat and a plane
In a car on a bike with a bus and a train
Traveling there and traveling here
Everywhere in every gear 

But oh Lord we pay the price with a
Spin of a wheel - with a roll of a dice
Ah yeah you pay your fare
And if you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there 

And I've been traveling through the dirt and the grime
From the past to the future through the space and the time
Traveling deep beneath the waves - in
watery grottoes and mountainous caves 

But oh Lord we've got to fight
With the thoughts in the head with the dark and the light
No use to stop and stare
And if you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there 

You may not known where you came from
May not know who you are
May not have even wondered how
you got this far 

I've been traveling on a wing and a prayer
By the skin of my teeth by the breadth of a hair
Traveling where the four winds blow
With the sun on my face - in the ice
and the snow 

But oooeeee it's a game
Sometimes you're cool, sometimes
you're lame
Ah yeah it's somewhere
And if you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there 

But oh Lord we pay the price
With the spin of the wheel with the roll of 
the dice
Ah yeah, you pay your fare
And if you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there 

I keep traveling around the bend
There was no beginning, there is no end
It wasn't born and never dies
There are no edges, there is no sides
Oh yeah, you just don't win
It's so far out - the way out is in
Bow to God and call him Sir
But if you don't know where you're going
Any road will take you there