Beware Of Darkness - George Harrison

Watch out now, take care,
Beware of falling swingers
Dropping all around you,
The pain that often mingles
In your fingertips,
Beware of darkness.

Watch out now, take care,
Beware of thoughts that linger,
Winding up inside your head,
The hopelessness around you
In the dead of night.

Beware of sadness.
It can hit you.
It can hurt you,
Make you sore and what is more
That is not what you are here for.

Watch out now, take care,
Beware of soft shoe shufflers
Dancing down the sidewalks
As each unconscious sufferer
Wanders aimlessly.
Beware of Maya.

Watch out now, take care,
Beware of greedy leaders;
They take you where you should not go,
While Weeping Atlas Cedars,
They just want to grow and grow.
Beware of darkness.

***

"soft shoe shufflers" - Con men, various cheats or simply just pinheads. People who 'dance' through life without questioning or reflecting on its meaning.

"greedy leaders" - Politicians, and in general, people (family members included, and these are the worst kind because you grew up believing and [bad word] them) who want to influence and control you while being out of touch with reality themselves.

"falling swingers" - Pop idols of little substance, of little message. Pretty boys and girls who sing and sell you  while making money for themselves, you know, "fluff" rock stars, "fluff" movie stars who have no higher message.

"Weeping Atlas Cedars" - These are actual trees, but here they are symbols for negative thoughts / false beliefs we hold on to, and as we hold on to them we give these thoughts and false beliefs power over us, and these thoughts and beliefs just "grow, grow and grow" and solidify in our minds as we help cultivate them. In real life these are huge trees, and so negative thoughts and false beliefs can grow to hold huge power over us.

Maya - Illusion.
The supernatural power wielded by gods and demons to produce illusions.
term from Hinduism and Buddhism.
Essentially, "beware of being tricked by yourself or others into seeing what is not really there."

"beware of darkness" - Beware of your unconscious thoughts (try to "be aware" of them), beware of blindly following impulse, beware of blindly following people, beware of acting without thinking, beware of The Dark Side, young Jedi ;)

"thoughts that linger" - Thoughts that we give too much power to. Obsessions.
Meditation is the space between thoughts. We get caught up in 'our' thoughts and cannot see the world as it is.

Thoughts are just that, thoughts, nothing more. You can act on them, or not.

"The pain that often mingles in your fingertips" - Harrison was a guitarist and is creating an image of how the pain he sees and perhaps sells himself is felt in his fingertips, or at least that's my interpretation.
Each person's experience may create a different interpretation.

There is also something else to consider. What if you know someone who is being influenced and manipulated by a person who is out of touch with reality? Should you help them? Should you help them both? Isn't the person who is out of touch with reality in need of help too? Isn't it our duty to help others who need help? And how do you help either one if they both refuse to be helped? Should you keep on trying to help, or should you give up?