J l seagull

Part One

Seagulls in general

…never falter, never stall

…to stall in air for them is disgrace and dishonor

…don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flying – from shore to food and back again

…its not flying that matter, but food

But Jon was different!!!

• For Jonathan, it was flying that mattered and not the food

• Made it hard for him to be like rest

• He was just bone and feathers

• His parents would always ask him concentrate on food and not flying

For Him…

• The subject was ‘speed’

• In just 6 sec, he would fly at 70 miles/hr as he would come down

• Of all ten trials, as he did this, he burst into a churning mass of feathers, out of control, crashing down into the water

• Then in 10 secs, he could blurred through 90 miles/ hr – a world speed record for seagulls

And Victories are short-lived…

• The instant he changed the angle of his wings, he snapped into a terrible uncontrollable disaster

• He exploded in midair and smashed down into the brick-hard sea

• His wings were ragged bars of lead, but the weight of failure was even heavier

• Discouraged, he decided to be a normal seagull

But he made it again!!!

• A hollow voice restricted his to fly in the dark, for that is required owl’s eye and falcon’s short wings – yes that’s the answer

• Again climbed 2000 feet and shot himself against the sea @ 140 and back to 70

• Set a new altitude of 5000 feet instead of 2000

• His vows for that moment were forgotten; felt guiltless of the promises he made to himself

Not understood by the flock…

• His act was not appreciated, but discouraged

• He was asked to leave the community

• His one sorrow was not solitude, but that other gulls refused to believe his glory

A new life

• He would not remain on fish and stale bread

• He would sleep in air, learned to ride the high winds of far inland, to dine on delicate insects

• Learned new lessons and no sorry

• He discovered that fear and anger is the reason for short life and he was happy he lived a long fine life indeed!!!

And another school…

• Two gulls flew along him at a precise and constant inch from him

• Jonathan put them to test @ 190 miles/hr

• “We’ve come to take higher, to take you home. One school is over and the time has come for another to begin”

• “I am ready” said Jonathan and the bright gulls disappeared into a perfect dark sky

Part Two

Into a new world

• Jonathan was flying at 273 miles/hr

• They landed on a land, welcomed by many gulls

• For these gulls, the most important thing was to reach out and touch perfection in that they most loved to do, and that was to fly

• Jon now started practicing with Sullivan

The Flight of Ideas!!!

• Jon met another elder gull Chiang, who explained to him ‘Heaven is being perfect’ and ‘perfection doesn’t have limits’

• “To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is,” Chiang said, “you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived ...”

• “Forget about faith! You don’t need faith to fly, you need to understand flying”

Back to the old world

• Fletcher Lynd Seagull, a next generation gull agreed to take lessons from Jon

• He believed that flapping wings is not flying…even a mosquito does that!!!

• “I don’t care what they think. I’ll show them what flying is! I’ll be pure Outlaw, if that’s the way they want it. And I’ll make them so sorry ...”

• Fletch started to learn lessons…the Level Flight

Part Three

Good times…

• By the end of six months, Jon had six more students

• Fletch suggested to go back and inspire other birds of the flock to join

• “Well, we don’t have to obey the law if we’re not a part of the Flock, do we?” he said

• And all eight of them pulled sharply and flew all the way around to a dead-slow stand-up landing

Contd.

• Jon stood along with the students, demonstrating, suggesting, pressuring, guiding

• After a month, the first gull of the flock crossed the line

• Slowly, by next day sunrise, thousands of them joined

• “The only true law is that which leads to freedom,” Jonathan said. “There is no other.”

Contd.

• The crowd grew larger everyday, coming to question, to idolize, to scorn

• Fletch said to Jon, ‘the crowd thinks you are the son of the Great Gull himself, then you are thousand years ahead of your time”

• Jon sighed it as the price of being misunderstood – Either they call you devil, or they call you god

One day at practice session…

• At seven thousand miles and two hundred miles/hr speed, a young bird calling for its mother, came in the way of Fletch

• Fletch snapped hard to the left into a hard granite cliff

• “What are you doing here? The cliff! Haven’t I ... didn’t I ... die?”

Jon’s explanation

• What Fletch did manage to do was to change your level of consciousness rather abruptly

• 2 choices – to stay here or go to the mob, and Fletch chose to go to the mob

• Surprised mob couldn’t believe and some called him devil, some called him god

And the life goes on…

• And next morning, everyone had forgotten

• Jon asked Fletch to continue teaching, while Jon would find other Fletchers!!!

• And Fletcher started a new group with the first lesson…

The First Lesson…

• “To begin with,” he said heavily, “you’ve got to understand that a seagull is an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull, and your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip, is nothing more than your thought itself.”

• And, the race to learn had begun.

Lessons Learnt

• Believe in Yourself!

• Perfection is limitless!!

• Be the change you want to!!!

• Being different is not being outlaw!!!!

Thank You!