Jonathan Livingston Seagull
I read the book today. The book teaches you a lot if you can decipher the meaning. Here are my interpretations. To summarize, the author talks about breaking free from our self-imposed limitations and finding out the higher purpose of our lives.
The first part tells us about a seagull named Jonathan, who wants to fly for the love of flying rather than merely a means of getting food for his survival. He tries and fails and tries again until he can fly the perfect flight. He thus gets outcast as he denies to follow the social norms.
The second part talks about Jonathan's entry into a new world which he has not known before. Here every other seagull is like him....flying the perfect way and learning new ways for a better flight. He thinks this is heaven and starts learning new ways of flying. It is from his friend in this new world that he finds out how seagulls have to learn something new and meaningful in their lives and then they can transcend into a new world. This is like the re-birth concept in hinduism, where you go thru' the cycle of birth and death until you have achieved salvation...the true meaning of your life. He also learns that heaven is not a place somewhere in time but it is perfection in what you choose as your purpose in life. You achieve that perfection thru' rigorous practice.
The last part talks about Jonathan coming back to his older flock and teaching them what he has learnt about life and flying. Here the author talks about the concept of "freedom". Everything is in our thoughts. We look the way we do because that is what we think we do. So the idea here is to free your thoughts and with that you can achieve the unimaginable....where time and space have no meaning!
Every living being can overcome the constraints of time and space if he "thinks" he can. If we free ourselves of our preconveived notions and try to discover our true identity, we achieve the highest state of being...where you become one with God. I am not new to this concept. Hiduism has very similar teachings and I have grown up listening to them. But as a kid, as a teenager it never made too much sense to me. Now when I think more about life, read more books it has started seeping in.
This book has lead to yet another thought. Learning about life and progressing thereforth is the principle of evolution. Isn't this how humans evolved from the homo sapiens? First we only cared about food and our basic needs of survival. Then eventually we grew beyond food and clothing to find out the answers to the innumerable questions that nature posed before us. And the quest continues for each one of us now when we try to answer the very reason for our existence. We essentially learnt and evolved from one world to the other. But where or what is our heaven...the final place of perfection?
The first part tells us about a seagull named Jonathan, who wants to fly for the love of flying rather than merely a means of getting food for his survival. He tries and fails and tries again until he can fly the perfect flight. He thus gets outcast as he denies to follow the social norms.
The second part talks about Jonathan's entry into a new world which he has not known before. Here every other seagull is like him....flying the perfect way and learning new ways for a better flight. He thinks this is heaven and starts learning new ways of flying. It is from his friend in this new world that he finds out how seagulls have to learn something new and meaningful in their lives and then they can transcend into a new world. This is like the re-birth concept in hinduism, where you go thru' the cycle of birth and death until you have achieved salvation...the true meaning of your life. He also learns that heaven is not a place somewhere in time but it is perfection in what you choose as your purpose in life. You achieve that perfection thru' rigorous practice.
The last part talks about Jonathan coming back to his older flock and teaching them what he has learnt about life and flying. Here the author talks about the concept of "freedom". Everything is in our thoughts. We look the way we do because that is what we think we do. So the idea here is to free your thoughts and with that you can achieve the unimaginable....where time and space have no meaning!
Every living being can overcome the constraints of time and space if he "thinks" he can. If we free ourselves of our preconveived notions and try to discover our true identity, we achieve the highest state of being...where you become one with God. I am not new to this concept. Hiduism has very similar teachings and I have grown up listening to them. But as a kid, as a teenager it never made too much sense to me. Now when I think more about life, read more books it has started seeping in.
This book has lead to yet another thought. Learning about life and progressing thereforth is the principle of evolution. Isn't this how humans evolved from the homo sapiens? First we only cared about food and our basic needs of survival. Then eventually we grew beyond food and clothing to find out the answers to the innumerable questions that nature posed before us. And the quest continues for each one of us now when we try to answer the very reason for our existence. We essentially learnt and evolved from one world to the other. But where or what is our heaven...the final place of perfection?
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