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!