The John McLaughlin Interview

Unites Humanity by John McLaughlin ​Coming out of the whole psychedelic trip, I was trying to address these big questions of existence. Coltrane’s recordings, A Love Supreme in particular, helped me through very difficult times of self-doubt. When you don’t know who you are and you’re figuring out what you’re trying to say. Who am I, anyway? What is this universe, what is God? When people refer to “God,” do they know what they’re talking about? It’s just a word; what’s it supposed to mean? ​ All of these questions you start asking yourself. A Love Supreme has stayed with me to this day. I’m looking at it right now in my CD collection. It’s difficult to figure out who you are. It’s difficult to figure out who you are musically, because then you have to figure out who you are in life or what you are. What is a human being? What is the meaning of existence? They’re all related to what we do and who we are from day to day, from moment to moment: the realization of what we are and what we are doing and the impact we can have on people. ​Fortunately, music is a powerful source of good that unites humanity. It’s the most beautiful power in the universe. You can’t play music while you’re angry. You can’t play music when you hate. You can play music only when you love. You love music; you love the people around you. It’s the true language of humanity. ​The best thing I’ve learned is not to think, just to act intuitively. It’s just like in playing music: if you’re thinking, you’re not playing. If you’re playing, you’re not thinking. If you act directly, then you’re not thinking about your actions. You’re being spontaneous and in a sense free. This is my goal in life: to quit thinking and just act. ​If you try to stop thinking, you’re thinking about stopping thinking. Meditation is the art of letting go and detaching yourself from thoughts. You try to focus on a chant or the sound of a voice, a sacred syllable, a photograph of a holy person. ​The Zen philosophy says our nature has always been pure, but we complicate things thinking. Thinking of what just happened, what happened yesterday, what’s going to happen tomorrow, instead of living absolutely in the present moment. The present moment is the only moment we have. How deeply can we live in the present moment? The present moment is infinite and eternal. If you can experience the fullness of the present moment, it will affect your life forever. Your perspective changes, and the world changes, because your awareness changes. ​It’s the same goal in music. If I go on stage and I’m thinking, “I’m going to play this tune or that tune,” then I’m not playing, I’m thinking. I have to abandon everything I’ve learned, everything I know. I have to go to the stage and let it all go. Let go of everything and just be in the present. Whatever happens, whatever comes to me, then that’s what it is. ​Of course, you have structure set up in music. You can even have structure set up in meditation. You can guide yourself. I do some chanting, which is always very useful. You get to a particular point where you don’t need to chant any more. You’re using a simple structure with the aim of transcending your everyday consciousness. In music there’s no point in playing what you know, because that’s part of your everyday consciousness. The whole point in music is to find what’s channeling you. If we have that moment, then everything is new in that moment.