JESUS & LENNON: FIRST
PHILOSOPHERS
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Recalling
those high school days
So
zestful and slim a boy fumes thoughts
Like
they were coming out of my cells
Immersed
my mental body was
In
the thought streams
Of
Christ and Lennon
One
to bridge with the Divine
The
other to link with humanity
They
who thought me sublime imagining
Of
love and compassion for all
Creations
of the Almighty
Will
live forever within me
[Philippines, 29
August 2010]
REFLECTION
Jesus
Christ and John Lennon were my first philosophers. Jesus I knew only from
cathechism as a child, but that was enough to make me his bhaktha or devotee. As
the poem says, Jesus was “to bridge the Divine,” as all Christed Ones are to
bhakthas and chelas (disciples). In high school did I first had the opportunity
to read the Holy Bible when our copy of the scriptures were brought home to us
by my Grandpa who visited the Vatican
on a European tour. Being among the Chohans of the Great White Brotherhood, his
teachings are among those I regard as must-read-and-practice philosophies to
become a free person.
John
Lennon I came to know first as a child too, as vocalist for Beatles. I learned
to play the guitar by summer of my Grade 5, and by Grade 6 I was already
playing for the school rondalla or
‘string band’. At home I played Beatles songs as some of my favorites. Then
came high school years, 71 through 75, when Lennon went solo. His songs were
philosophical, and I simply loved them. As the poem says, he was “the other to
link with humanity,” meaning a voice of collective conscience. His song Imagine is the most appreciated, and at
times I couldn’t avoid shedding tears singing it, as the imageries of the wars
in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos,
and insurgencies in the Philippines
screamed the headline news.
Lennon
was no spiritual master like Jesus, true. He was like any ordinary folk who was
asserting his right to make people happy and ring their conscience with
messages of love and liberation. But he deserved my respect, and lives forever
in me being a part of my formative years.
A
3rd philosopher of my adolescent years was Dr. Jose Rizal, national
hero of the Philippines.
In my previous writings, I regard Rizal as a ‘guru of nationhood’ like Gandhi,
who mentored my forefathers to loving the motherland and gelling themselves
into a nation. I encountered his novels in 3rd year high school, as
a required reading, and the rest was history.
Ra
May
2011
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