Meditation can simply be a conscious shift of attention, George explained.
George was practicing a meditation with no beginning and no end, consciously shifting his attention to beauty. What you give your attention to becomes the content of your mind and therefore influences your perception and experience of life. Whenever he noticed something beautiful, he gave it his attention. Instead of just a glimpse, he gazed. He used his camera to help him. Sitting on the sunny deck overlooking the reef, he showed me some of his footage: it began at his home in Hawaii, and the image was of two ukuleles he was in the process of re-upholstering in zebra print. One was for himself, and one was for Dhani, his son. Then the image cross-faded to a flower, a sunset, then a rainbow, a cloud drifting in a blue sky, a double rainbow, the sunrise, waves on a white sandy beach, the moon. His recording went on like that with images of beauty. I was surprised to find that I had difficulty giving my full attention to his montage of beauty. Thoughts of my problems and challenges tried to distract my attention away from this experience. It took effort and strength of will to remain focused on beauty.
George explained to me, "What you focus on is what you hold in your consciousness. And so that is what you feel, and that is what you are." What you focus on grows in your experience, so you'll draw more of it to you. Certainly, I noticed that George was surrounded by beauty, including his wife, family and friends. And it wasn't that he denied the harshness of the world, either. On the contrary, he had several charities in place (which still exist as the Material World Charitable Foundation) making great efforts to help those in need. He carried with him proof pudding of his beautiful practice.
Before this encounter, I'd not realized that I had control over what I felt or thought. I was completely reactionary to the world, a victim of my happy or sad circumstance. But this lesson helped me realize the power I have over my own state of being, and that I can be responsible for how I feel. Change the focus of your attention, change your world. It was such a simple lesson, but profound enough that it never left me. And what kind of person would I be if I kept it to myself forever? So I'm sharing it with you.
/ Excerpted from an interview with Lennon on the subject of meditation ...
Edit: Wrote Lennon and meant Harrison, of course
Peace ~