Monday, January 13, 2014

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, A Story - Richard Bach

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a seagull. Unlike the other seagulls of his flock who consider their only purpose in life to be eating, Jonathan is interested in flying. In fact he loves flying. His obsessive liking for flying and for speed makes Jonathan study his techniques to increase his speed. He goes much higher, folds his wings and then attempts a dive that threatens his very life. He succeeds in going higher than any gull has gone, four times as faster. He flies at night, something that seagulls never do. But for all his efforts, he is ostracized for putting others in danger. The flock you see, do not want to fly, to see a magnificent world.

In his continuing and lonesome quest for excellence Jonathan soon finds himself meeting others of similar desires and thoughts. Far fewer though. He also finds himself a mentor, thanks to his great capacity to learn and implement all that he learned. Sullivan explains why there were so few because it takes many lives to seek this perfection, this excellence. Jonathan learns and practices until he starts to evolve the art of flying into a fine art. A state that is reached when he is truly himself, when he accepts himself as being full and complete as he is. His mentor Chiang tells him that heaven is nothing but bring perfect. Perfection described as being there. Chiang explains - "to fly as fast as thought, to anywhere, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived." It is about being unlimited, perfect, and not being limited by space and time. As one learns more and more, one starts working on the highest skill, of practicing kindness and love.

Jonathan becomes a master himself and starts training younger gulls. He explains that each was an idea of the great potential - an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the great gull - and all that they were doing through flying was to express themselves. The key was to overcome all that limits them. Jonathan tells them that they were nothing but thought - and if they can break the chains of their thought they could be free.

It is an incredible amount of stuff to say in 93 pages and in such clear terms. The metaphor of the seagull is perfect. Do we stay low, limited and restricted as the flock does or do we soar high? The risk it appears is great, but is it? Richard Bach speaks of many things but most of all our being perfect without knowing it, our need to achieve our potential and how that effort to seek perfection gives us our freedom and our peace. Brilliant read anytime. Don't overlook it thinking it's for college kids. It opens a whole new
world now. Loved it even more this time.

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