Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. – John Lennon

John Winston Ono Lennon was an English singer, songwriter, musician, and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as the founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist, and rhythm guitarist of the Beatles. Lennon was characterized by the rebellious nature and acerbic wit in his music, writing, and drawings, on film, and in interviews.

"Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans."

This means that you can make all the plans you want for yourself, but life may have a completely different set of plans. Everyone gets disappointed every now and then when their life doesn't quite go the way they want. I know my life is far from what I planned, and I'm sure many people have had the same experience. Over time, life shapes you and changes your life as it sees fit.

John Lennon did compose a song containing this saying and released it in 1980. The song was called “Beautiful Boy” or “Darling Boy” and it was part of the album “Double Fantasy”. Lennon wrote the lyrics about his experiences with his son Sean.

This famous quote from John Lennon reflects a paradox in our lives. Many of us want to have a peaceful journey and enjoy the present moment, but we can’t help but make plans for the future so we feel safe, or we spend time digging through past hurts. Lennon didn't say we shouldn't have plans, but that the real experience of being alive goes beyond those plans and "happens" to us.

At first glance, this seems to negate any personal will, since the right answer to life is to embrace it rather than try to direct it, but it may just be the way free will should turn to it from the content of our lives: we don't use our free will to decide what should happen next, but use it to choose ego or let go, to choose between a life ruled by our minds or life in tune with higher intelligence. For most people, this higher intelligence seems to manifest only when their lives flow: important meetings happen, synchronicity leads to a new path, and something mysterious seems to be pulling. The willingness to not resist anything living on the road determines how long the ride will last. Then, one day, the ego-mind took back its throne, doubt arose, and the miraculous path disappeared. The guidance doesn't seem to exist anymore.

To walk the road, we must trust, live in the moment, and let go of fear. In other words, behaviors we weren't taught when we were growing up, so adapting is necessary. Learned behavior is often a source of false security and self-limitation. Unfortunately, any mental work on adaptation will only take us so far: as Buddhists say, "you can't pull the thorn on the thorn". The ego mind will always rush towards the supervisor, reverting to a lower mode when threatened by change. It is impossible to get rid of the ego, and treating it as a servant of this higher intelligence is the answer.

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