As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by John Mauti (Kenya)
1. What do you think that the author is trying to convey in the book?
In his book As a Man Thinketh, the author has a running theme which is the power of the mind. To start off his book, Allen discusses the power of the mind to shape one’s thoughts, character, circumstances, health, and one’s purpose in life. Then Allen transitions into discussing how one should strive for achievement; how one should chase after his own visions and dreams; in order to excel in life. As A Man Thinketh states that our thought is the seed for action. If you control the cause- you can control the effect. The main message of this succinct, yet powerful, book is: the qualities of your thoughts determine your quality of life.
2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your life.
i. “You become what you think on a subconscious level.”
As a man thinketh in his heart means, what you think on a deeper level as opposed to what you think consciously. And “so is he,” meaning, “is what you become.” To understand this further, let’s get some context from what the Bible says. Right before this proverb is mentioned: a begrudging host has invited others to eat his food.
He says the words “Take what you want,” but that’s not what he means.
It is a test put forth by the host to know the strength of his guests. A test of will and a test of self-control.
ii. And we can interpret this into a battle between our own mind and heart.
We often say one thing or know on a deeper level what is right, but then we allow ourselves to do the opposite, letting our thoughts take control of us instead of commanding our thoughts to taking the right action. We shouldn’t be greedy, we shouldn’t try too hard to impress, we shouldn’t take and never give, we shouldn’t say one thing and do another, and so on. I interpret the above story as though the host’s words are the voices in our head or the thoughts that influence us to do things we don’t want to do.
If we allow our thoughts to dictate us, then a day will come when we look at ourselves and our life and wonder how things come to be the way they are, filled with anguish and regret.
iii. A Persons Character is the Sum of Their Thoughts
“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.” To put it simply, we are who we are because of our thoughts. Our thoughts influence our emotion which govern our actions and behaviors. Everything we do in our lives can be traced back to a single thought. Whether our actions are spontaneous, unpremeditated, or deliberate, they all stem from our thoughts.
iv. You don’t get successful; you become successful.
Likewise, you don’t wake up one day committing crimes; you become a criminal.
Thoughts have a direct correlation with our identity, and our identity is our destiny.
“Man is a growth by law, and not a creation of artifice.” Artifice: “clever or cunning devices or expedients, especially as used to trick or deceive others.”
We can act and speak words that deceive people of our truth, but it is our thoughts that make us. We only grow into the person we want to be perceived as by the thoughts which consume our mind the most.
v. Circumstance Doesn’t Create a Man, They Reveal Him
“Thought and character are one, and as character can only manifest and discover itself through environment and circumstance, the outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. This does not mean that a man’s circumstances at any given time are an indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected with some they are indispensable to his development.”
We are not at the mercy of our circumstances; we create them. There is only a limited amount of circumstances we’re born into, of which we do not choose. Our parents, our location, and how we’re raised are a few, but it is our choice of thought that cultivates an unlimited possibility of circumstance we experience later in life. Many people are born into the same circumstances, yet only a few will discover they are the master-gardener of their soul and director of their life. As soon as we’re able to leave home and make our way in life, we can choose the life we want to live.
Unfortunately, by the time we reach this age, we have picked up all the habits and beliefs of our parents and the way we see ourselves.
If we were raised to take responsibility for ourselves and developed a healthy self-esteem, then we will probably make better choices and create a fulfilling life.
If, however, you are one of the unfortunate ones (like myself), childhood could have resulted in a poor self-image, crippling attachments, and unhealthy habits.
It’s then common to feel like a victim to your circumstances, and believe the only way out is for someone of something to save you.
You know, like in the movies.
This is the difference between the two mindsets, which is that one person is working from the outside in and the other is working from the inside out.
When you work from the outside in, you see the circumstances in your life as happening to you. Bad things happen and it makes you feel bad. Good things happen and it makes you feel good. The alternative is to recognize that you have all the control from within and the choice to feel good no matter what’s happening.
Yes, bad things might still happen, but you choose not to let it affect you because you don’t take it personally.
vi. Sickness Is a Manifestation of Thought
What is the difference between two people who receive bad news from their doctor with only a few months to live. And then, one dies three months later and the other lives for many years? The difference is that the one who died took the news as fact and that there was nothing they could do about it. The other denied the prognosis and lived.
It’s as simple as that and it happens all too often. Studies in recent years are validating the idea that disease manifests first in our mind and then in our bodies.
Authors such as Allen have been talking about this spiritual idea for hundreds of years and science is catching up. Just a peak into Epigenetics reveals that it’s not our genes that determine our fate, but how we respond to our environment that can impact how genes are expressed. This suggests that there’s a direct link between our thoughts, interpretations, and our biology.
vi. We Don’t Get What We Want in Life, We Get Our Habits of Thought
“All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his thoughts.” We only achieve things through unconscious repetition. If our thoughts are filled with lack, unworthiness, doubt, and sickness, we manifest only what they reflect.
We can only achieve what we are. Someone who thinks of confident thoughts, abundance, wellbeing, and compassion for others, become those things.
When we impress these thoughts deep down into our subconscious, they become a habitual and we can only act in accordance to what is second nature.
Our first nature is instinctual and if our basic needs go unmet in adolescents, unworthiness and lack produce thoughts of their kind.
If these thoughts go unnoticed and left to roam wild, they become habitual and our destiny. For us to evolve past the point of attaining our own basic needs, we must take responsibility for our mind and choose our thoughts carefully. Unhelpful thoughts that rule our life can only live on when we don’t attend to them.
vii. We are not our thoughts, but the witness and master of them.
When our minds rely on thoughts to feel alive, we become addicted to them, identifying with them and what they say. This identification and addictive tendencies manifest in the physical world. We turn to other addictions to complete the cycle of habitual thinking, whether it be drugs, alcohol, an activity, or relationships. Psychologist Carl Jung once said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
viii. We are doomed to repeat what isn’t made conscious.
When we become conscious of how our mind has operated and we can directly link it to unwanted experiences, it becomes easier to let go of who we once were. But it doesn’t come without sacrifice. We cannot make progress without sacrifice because any kind of achievement takes effort and the willingness to become the person who can achieve them.
Old ways of being need to be purged and grieved and bad habits that no longer serve us must be turned into ones which serve our highest good.
3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping to create a better world? If so, how?
These ideas will help me to understand that my mind is a powerful tool and can make me achieve whatever I want in this world, for what a man thinks results to what he is, so my thoughts should be positive in my life.
4. Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as to why they were important to you.
“A strong man cannot help a weaker unless the weaker is willing to be helped, and even then the weak man must become strong of himself; he must, by his own efforts, develop the strength which he admires in another. None but himself can alter his condition.”
“The outer conditions of a person’s life will always be found to be harmoniously related to his inner state. Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are.”
“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.”
“A man only begins to be a man when he ceases to whine and revile, and commences to search for the hidden justice which regulates his life. And he adapts his mind to that regulating factor, he ceases to accuse others as the cause of his condition, and builds himself up in strong and noble thoughts; ceases to kick against circumstances, but begins to use them as aids to his more rapid progress, and as a means of the hidden powers and possibilities within himself.”
“Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts.
For out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.”
“He who would accomplish little need sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much. He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.”
“The dreamers are the saviors of the world. As the visible world is sustained by the invisible, so men, through all their trials and sins and sordid vocations, are nourished by the beautiful visions of their solitary dreamers.”
“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts
and actions can never produce good results. We understand this law in
the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental
and moral world—although its operation there is just as simple and undeviating—
and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.”
5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and if so why?
The well stated and clear it’s well understood too.
6. Did the book contain exercise for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all the exercises and did you find them helpful?
The book contains a lot of life exercise, our brain and thinking is the power house of our future we need to be more vigilant on what we say and act, the more positive our thoughts the better result, this is a check list book to our future life.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.
None.
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 9
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 9
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10
Jonathan Livingston Seagul
Assessment by John Mauti (Kenya)
1. What do you think that the author is trying to convey in the book?
Jonathan Livingston Seagull is an independent thinker frustrated with the daily squabbles over meager food and sheer survival within his flock of seagulls who have no deeper sense of purpose. Unlike his peers, he is seized with a passion for flight of all kinds, and his soul soars as he aerially experiments and learns more about the nature of his own body and the environment in achieving faster and faster flight. Eventually, his lack of conformity within the Flock causes them to officially banish him with the label “Outcast.” Undeterred, Jonathan continues his efforts to reach ever-greater flight goals, finding he is often successful. He lives a long happy life and is sad not due to his loneliness but only due to the fact that the rest of the Flock will never know the full glories of flying, like him. In his old age, he is met by two radiantly-bright seagulls who share his abilities, explaining to him that he has learned much, but that they have come to take him “home” where he will go “higher.”
Jonathan transcends into a reality, which he assumes is heaven, where all the gulls enjoy practicing incredible maneuvers and speeds, like him. His instructor, Sullivan, explains that a few gulls progress to this higher existence, but most others live through the same world over and over again. The Elder Gull of the community, Chiang, admits that this reality is not heaven, but that heaven is the achieving of perfection itself: an ability beyond any particular time or place. Suddenly, Chiang disappears, then reappears a moment later, displaying his attainment of perfect speed. When Jon begs to learn Chiang’s skills, Chiang explains that the secret to true flight is to recognize that one’s nature exists across all time and space. Jon begins successfully following Chiang’s teachings. One day, Chiang slowly transforms into a blindingly luminous being and, just before disappearing for the last time, he gives Jon one last tip: “keep working on love.” Jon ponders Chiang’s words and, in a discussion with Sullivan, decides to go back to his own home planet, to teach his original Flock all that he has learned. Returning there, he finds a fellow lover of flying, Fletcher Lynd Seagull, who is angry at recently being “Outcast” by the Flock. Jon takes on Fletcher as his first new pupil.
Jonathan has now amassed a small group of Outcasts as flying students, with Fletcher the star pupil, and tells them that “each of us is in truth… an unlimited idea of freedom”. The deeper nature of his words is not yet understood by his pupils, who believe they are just getting basic flying lessons. For a month, Jon boldly takes them to perform aerial stunts in front of the bewildered Flock. Some of the Flock slowly join the Outcasts, while other labels him a messiah or a devil; Jon feels misunderstood. One day, Fletcher dies in a flying collision. Awaking in another reality, he hears Jon’s voice teasing him that the trick to transcending the limitations of time and space is to take it step by step — not so quickly. Fletcher is resurrected in the very midst of the flabbergasted Flock, some of whom fear and decry his supernatural reappearance, but Jon insists that he must learn to love the ignorant Flock. Jon’s body suddenly begins to fade away, he requests that Fletcher stop others from thinking of him as anything silly like a god, and he gives a final piece of advice: find out what you already know.” Soon, Fletcher faces a group of eager new students of his own. He passes on Jon’s sentiments that seagulls are limitless ideas of freedom and their bodies nothing more than thought itself, but this only baffles the young gulls. He realizes now why Jon taught him to take lessons slowly, step by step. Privately musing on Jon’s idea that there are no limits, Fletcher smiles at the implication of this: that he will see Jon again, one day soon.
2. What were the seven ideas which were personally most important to you and why? List these seven ideas followed by an explanation after each one as to why it was important to you. Use personal examples from your life.
a). You should never be afraid to learn, you never know what more you’ll discover.
b). Open your mind, be curious; stay curious. Ask questions.
c). Although Jonathan was awesome, he wasn’t immune to self-doubt and sad moments. Even the best of the best have anxious moments but still move forward.
d). He sought to teach others and share what he knew even when others were against him and he was considered an outcast by his very own ‘gull community. He showed forgiveness, and with forgiveness, we let off massive weights of hatred from us that may not let us move forward.
e). If you want to succeed, to do something you find impossible or difficult, the trick is to know that you have already arrived or achieved it.
f). Learn to love and show kindness. Learn it. It gets difficult to show love after we have gone through so much hardship, but you can always learn and learn again how to show love.
g). Never let the accolades get to your head either. Jonathan accepted the praises other seagulls gave to him but only for a minute. Then he moved on and continued to practice.
3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping to create a better world? If so, how?
These ideas will help me to understand that whatever I want to do I am not supposed to look back, its my life and I make my own choices, without fearing anyone.
4. Quotes: Are there any statements which the author made that particularly got your attention? If so, please quote them and comment as to why they were important to you.
“Instead of being enfeebled by age, the Elder had been empowered by it; He could outfly any gull in the Flock, and he had learned skills that the others were only gradually coming to know.”
“Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor. But Jonathan Livingston Seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings again in that trembling hard curve–slowing, slowing, and stalling once more–was no ordinary bird.”
“By morning the Flock had forgotten its insanity, but Fletcher had not. Jonathan, remember what you said a long time ago, about loving the Flock enough to return to it and help it learn? Sure. I don’t understand how you manage to love a mob of birds that has just tried to kill you. Oh, Fletch, you don’t love that! You don’t love hatred and evil, of course. You have to practice and see the real gull, the good in every one of them, and to help them see it in themselves. That’s what I mean by love. It’s fun, when you get the knack of it.”
“Look with your understanding, find out what you already know, and you’ll see the way to fly.”
“And though he tried to look properly severe for his students, Fletcher Seagull suddenly saw them all as they really were, just for a moment, and he more than liked, he loved what it was he saw.”
“For in spite of his lonely past, Jonathan Seagull was born to be an instructor, and his own way of demonstrating love was to give something of the truth that he had seen to a gull who asked only a chance to see truth for himself.”
“His one sorrow was not solitude, it was that the other gulls refused to believe the glory of flight that awaited them; they refused to open their eyes and see.”
“Why is it, Jonathan puzzled, ‘that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free, and that he can prove it for himself if he’d just spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard?”
5. Is there anything in the book that you do not understand or are unclear about, or are there ideas which you disagree with and if so why?
The well stated and clear it’s well understood too.
6. Did the book contain exercise for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all the exercises and did you find them helpful?
The book contains a lot of life exercises, it calls for action in our daily life to be a go taker and not to wait anybody to do what we are supposed to do, it is a nice book and handy.
7. Was there anything you read in the book that you would like to comment on that was not covered in the previous questions? If so, please comment.
None.
Please rate the following questions on a scale from 1 to 10. Ten is good and one is poor.
A. How interesting was it to read? 10
B. How helpful were the contents? 10
C. How easy was it to understand? 10
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10