ABOUT AUTHOR
Richard Bach is a writer and pilot, author of three books of the mystique of flying. During the past decade or so, he has edited a flying magazine, and written more than a hundred magazine articles and stories. A former US air force pilot, he is now seldom without an aeroplane.
Russell Munson started taking pictures of aeroplanes as a child and has been involved with flying and photography ever since. He owns a Piper Super Cub, from which he took some of the pictures in this book.
SUMMARY
Part One
Book begins by introducing the reader to Jonathan Livingston Seagull, one of many gulls belonging to Breakfast Flock, a particular gull colony. Every day, the Flock spends their time fighting for food. Young Jonathan Livingston frustrated with the meaningless materialism and conformity and limitation of the seagull life. He is seized with a passion for flight of all kinds, and his soul soars as he experiments with challenges of daring and triumphant feats. Eventually, his lack of conformity to the limited seagull life leads him into conflict with his flock, and they turn their backs on him. This passion gets him outcaste by the flock. He becomes an outcast. Not deterred by this, Jonathan continues his efforts to reach higher and higher flight goals, finding he is often successful but eventually he can fly no higher. He is then met by two radiant, loving seagulls who explain to him that he has learned much, and that they are there now to teach him more. He follows them.
However it is his friend, an old friend who is considered to be the one who explains the philosophy‚ of life to him. To his friend and himself, flying perfect was not about flying, but knowing it. Once Jonathan overcomes his physical self, he realizes that nothing was impossible for him; however in that he finds that his journey has not ended; for down on earth lay several others who may want to fly high.
Part Two
Part Two is comprised of Jonathan’s humble acceptance of the teaching of his elders in the new realm. In the days that followed, Jonathan saw that there was as much to learn about flight in this place as there had been in the life behind him. He is only capable of this after practicing hard alone for a long time. Jonathan finds himself with others of a like mind, and discovers that there's still more to learn. His mentor Sullivan and the leader of the flock, Chiang, help him go further in his quest to find perfect speed and exceed his limits. He discovers that he can communicate telepathically, and learns to appear and disappear at will.
In this other society, real respect emerges as a contrast of the compulsary force that was keeping the former "Breakfast Flock" together. Jonathan transcends into another society where all the gulls enjoy flying. The learning process, linking the highly experienced teacher and the diligent student, is raised into almost sacred level.
Eventually he becomes the first gull to reach terminal velocity at 214 m.p.h. and later flies the first acrobatics of any seagull on earth. In his quest for the supreme learning and perfection, he flies back to the flock.We have got to understand that a seagull is an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull." He realizes that you have to be true to yourself.
Once he's mastered these tricks, Jonathan wants to go back to his old flock to teach what he has learned. He meets Fletcher Lynd Seagull who is Outcast, as Jonathan once was, and begins the process of teaching him. Eventually they return to shake up the ideas of the larger Flock.
Part Third
In the third part Jonathan returns to the Breakfast Flock to share his newly discovered ideals. His desire to share this sends him back down to the flock which originally outcasted him. He begins taking on students and giving lectures and lessons to an increasingly large portion of his former flock, until he passes leadership of the school to his best student.
The introduction to the third part of the book is the last words of Jonathan's teacher: "keep working on love." In this part Jonathan understands that the spirit cannot be really free without the ability to forgive, and the way to progress leads through becoming a teacher — not just through working hard as a student. Jonathan returns to the Breakfast Flock to share his newly discovered ideals and the recent tremendous experience, ready for the difficult fight against the current rules of that society. The ability to forgive seems to be a mandatory "passing condition."
"Do you want to fly so much that you will forgive the Flock, and learn, and go back to them one day and work to help them know?" Jonathan asks his first student before getting into any further talks. The idea that the stronger can reach more by leaving the weaker friends behind seems totally rejected.
Hence, love, deserved respect, and forgiveness seem to be equally important to the freedom from the pressure to obey the rules just because they are commonly accepted.
INCIDENTS OF BOOK THAT MAKES IMPRESSION:
Jonathan was not an ordinary seagull. For a thousand years, seagulls have spent their whole life on scrambling after fish heads. But Jonathan saw something different. He thought that life should not be just eating and fighting, even seagulls should have a reason to live. For him, his meaning of life is to fly. We all wish that we could spend all our time on doing things we like, just as Jonathan spent all his time on his beloved flight. However, the success in finding his meaning of life didn't bring with him any honor, but caused him to be an object of shame and irresponsibility, and to be banished due to his neglect to finding food.
After having been banished, Jonathan was full time practicing flying and made great progress. He thought he had found his own heaven, and wondered why there are so few seagulls enjoying themselves in the heaven; "heaven should be flocked with gulls!" Therefore, besides finding his own meaning of life, he eventually returned to the place that once had expelled him, and help the fellows there to find their purpose of life. This is what I like most in the story. "You don't love hatred and evil...you have to practice and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it themselves" Jonathan was unselfish and lenient. He wasn't hostile to those who forced him out of his homeland, on the contrary, he learned to love them and help them. To forgive and love your enemy is even more difficult than finding the meaning of life, but Jonathan, a little seagull, managed to act it out.
While Jonathan carried on practicing, he found out that" this world isn't heaven at all". Heaven is being perfect, is not limited by time and space..."there is no such place". So, heaven is somewhere that we can never step out foot in. Very often, people do their best longing for the best result, they like to be perfect and try their best to be perfect. They have an idea of heaven in their mind and are upset all the time because they can never achieve it, we all have too many flaws. Since human beings are born to be flawed, heaven, being perfect, isn't a place we belong to.
How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s a reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skills. We can be free! We can learn to fly! There is lots of things in life to do we just have to find them.
"Don't believe what your eyes are telling you. All they show is limitation..." Can we really do that? If we don't trust our eyes, what can we trust upon? We learned from setbacks and failure, we are too familiar with our own strength, we all know about our limitations because they are all just lying before our eyes. So how can we possibly act out that "aphorism"? Why can't we just accept the way we are rather than pushing ourselves to extreme and suffer?
To me, this quote is best for people to get over their failure, to console themselves, to help them feel better, just as someone said "experience is the name everybody gives to their mistakes". However, the solution to completely root out this problem is: to admit your limitation, to love your flaw, and to bring your goal from heaven back to earth.
Chaing, this world isn’t heaven at all, is it? The elder smiled in the
moonlight. “You are learning again, Jonathan Seagull,” he said. Well, what happens from here? Where are we going? Is there no such place as heaven? We all know that this world is not heaven we have to fight against world for ourselves.
"Why, Jon, why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can't you leave flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don't you eat? Jon, you're bone and feathers!" this was what Jonathan's mother told him. To be honest, I completely agree with her. Why is it so hard to go with the flow? Making something totally different from what we are now having is a harsh task, not only to the advocate, but also to the rest of the society. It's hard to change what has been defined as convention, what you have believed in for so long, and you may not even want to take the trouble to change. All these would only spoil the harmony of the society. We are all bone and flesh, we won't be staying in this world long. The why should we try to disturb the peace and quietness of this world? Why not make the world an easier place for everyone to live in? To bring about new idea and reform doesn't necessarily do well to us, conflicts are aroused especially when the newly introduced concept is against the original one... What is shown in this story is a very ideal case. Somehow, human beings are not seagulls.
Jonathan Seagull discovered that boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that a gull’s life is so short, and with these gone from his thoughts, he lived a long fine life indeed. Same is the case with human beings.
“But you can, Jonathan. For you have learned. One school is finished, the time had to come for another to begin”. As we finished one stage of learning we have to go for other because this process continues whole our life it’s never ending process.
MANAGERIAL USEFULLNESS
• In management we need to believe in ourselves the story inspirited us to believe in our self.
• The book teaches lessons on how to live in the present and how important passion is to anyone who wishes to be truly alive.
• Jonathan Seagull, instead of fighting and screeching and diving like all the others, spends his time practicing to fly. He doesn't understand the practicality of such monotonous day-to-day activities. Rather, he attempts to perfect his flying abilities. In management also we need to practice and do work without getting bored
• This book also motivates us to generate leadership qualities.
• We tries to find solution of a problem not to be remain in problem.
CONCLUSION
Simplicity in conveying the thoughts on life. Like the author says in the beginning that the book is to the real Jonathan living within us, it does force you to introspect. Limiting ourselves is the worst thing in the world we can do. But the one who challenges limits is the one whom the society rejects and yet it turns out that the one is one whom others follow.
We are too scared to let ourselves go. We are too scared to challenge ourselves. Most of the time we need that secluded cloud of society on us to feel safe. Out of society we are most likely to cripple down and break. Only the brave few make it and they become the next savior. Savior need not be god, but savior could be anyone who inspires you to look beyond the possibilities. The savior needs faith in his capacities, and its only faith which stops us too from being one. Another name of the story can be “Sky Is The Limit”.
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