As A Man Thinketh
Assessment by Simachew Mekonnen Alimaw (Ethiopia)
1.What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
The author properly described the psychology of human beings. A human being is literally what he thinks, his character, circumstances and all being the complete sum of all his thoughts. Therefore, we have learned how to modify our thinking, mind calibration, and commitments for change. For the cause and effect of our mental calibration, our husbandry has a great impact on every body’s 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 own life.
All of the below ideas are very important and proofs our experiences and expressed with examples to convince us, and it is common in our community and I have got good information from it.
a. If one endures in purity of thought, Joy follows him as his own shadow- sure.
As I have read from the text, “Act is the blossom of thought and joy and suffering are its fruit, thus does a man garner in the sweet and bitter fruitage of his own husbandry.” If our thought properly managed in the right way, it is clear that joy is in our hand.
b. A man’s mind may be likened to a garden.
Just as a gardener cultivates his plot , keeping it free from weeds and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong , useless and impure thoughts and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right , useful and pure thoughts. So that we can say, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master –gardener of his soul, the director of his life.
c. Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results.
That means, nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Everybody understands this law in the natural world, and work with it. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
d. The body is the servant of the mind.
This means, it obeys the operation of the mind. The body is a delicate and plastic instrument, which responds readily to the thoughts by which it is impressed, and habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad up on it. Quality food doesn’t matter to our body unless our mind is free of bad thoughts.
e. If you would perfect your body, guards your mind. If you would renew your body beautify your mind.
Means, a sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts. And we can see this example:
As you cannot have a sweet and wholesome abode unless you admit the air and sunshine freely into your rooms, so a strong body and a bright, happy, or serene countenance can only result from the free admittance into the mind of thoughts of joy and goodwill and serenity.
f. He who has confused doubt and fear has conquered failure.
Means, Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.
As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.
g. All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.
Mean, a man’s weakness and strength, purity and impurity are his own and not another man’s. They are brought about by him and not by another; and they can only be altered by him never by another. A strong man cannot help a weaker unless that weaker is willing to be helped. And even the commitment of weaker man is very important for change.
3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?
All of the above ideas are very constructive and should be applied in every one’s life. Even for our child care, this text has great impact for the management of kids’ behavior and character. Our child will follow our conduct and activities. Therefore, all points add value to the life of human beings.
And also I have understood how the mental and moral problems can be modified or changed even from sharing experience and reading books. And only needs our commitment for change.
I agreed that, a man’s mind may be likened to a garden , just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds and growing flowers and fruits which he requires so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong , useless and improve thoughts and cultivating towards perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful and pure thoughts.
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.
The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg. This means that our vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil.
Since dreams are seedlings of realities, it is the vision of human beings. To get the fruit we have to remove the hard cover and to get the bird we have to wait the time until the chicken develops. Finally the message is trying to elaborate how vision comes to true after trying and error efforts.
Nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. This means that,
Good thought and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. And also the circumstances which a man encounters with suffering are the result of his own mental in harmony. The circumstances which a man encounters with blessedness are the results of his own mental harmony.
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?
I am not clear about this idea, and I am not agreeing on direct understanding of the statement.
“Men will continue to have impure and poisoned blood, so long as they propagate unclean thoughts. Out of a clean heart come a clean life and a clean body. Out of a defiled mind proceeds a defiled mind precedes a defiled life and a corrupt body.”
From this point some words like, blood, heart and mind affects one’s life, but I don’t agree how blood affects our thought and life.
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
I didn’t get any formal exercises but the text itself has given a book to read from the website. And also some questions in the note is written but it is explained in the note directly and indirectly.
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.
This text book explained about human beings nature, psychology and other points. But it is general idea; I think it may be different according to demography. So that children, youth and adults may have no the same psychology and mind, it may be differ. This text books only shows the general truth as of my understanding.
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? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 10
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Simachew Mekonnen Alimaw (Ethiopia)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
As my understanding I have found that the main idea of the author is, It is so much difficult to break the culture of a community whatever the communities have a positive or negative culture, it is belonging to them. Jonathan sea gull is the one who is a member of the flock but his understanding and objective a bit far away as compared to other member of the flock. He is patience, experienced and skilled gull but he wants to share his skill and benefit to the rest of the group even if he faced opposition and out casted. But up on a time and based on his unreserved effort , Jonathan sea gull has tried to convince many of the members from day to day skill demonstrations. He used the mechanism of “seeing is believing,” he able to attract the flock members after a time even if it is difficult to break the law of the flock. And the author explained properly how to explore the maximum potential of talent by trying and learning from those who have knowledge. In addition how the universal accepted principles important in our day to day activities for the change one’s 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 own life.
a. We have a reason to live, to discover, to be free:
This point ensures the social rights of everybody. Everybody has a right to live, to learn, to discover and to be free. And we have the right to join any of the culture or not. Nature is already created to us to do everything, to live, learn and to change to more comfortable situations. We can join what is good and reject if it is not good.
b. We choose our next world through what we learn in this one:
Human beings have the ability to change or not the world situations. The learning and development program expansion has an impact to change the universe, so that the world is on our hand for change or not. Example ; To see developed country, we have to work efficiently on the agriculture, industry and service sector.
c. It always works, when you know what you are doing.
Means that, everything is possible if we know what we are doing. Everybody has to know what he wants to do? And it is easy to do which is done by others if we have interest. Nothing is impossible…
d. Keep working on love
Regardless of the outcome, it is very important to keep working on love. If we like our daily works we will be reach in techniques and skills. Then after, we will be specialized in that specific field and demanded in the market. Example, I was employee with minimum salary when I graduated from the university, but I like my work, then after some years I am getting got the maximum salary which is beyond my expectation, this is the result of my work.
e. The gull sees farthest, who flies highest.
This point gives a good lesson for the readers. It helps to have big consideration and take care for every activity. The point says, we may lose our resource which is near to us when we look for the highest or unreachable.
f. If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when finally overcome space and time, we have destroyed our own brotherhood!
Brotherhood should not be depending on time and space. If we depend on time and space and we will be busy too much, then we will not meet with our friends then our brotherhood will broke out. Then without the access of time and space we must have plan to meet with our intimate friends, time and space shouldn’t matter. If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when finally overcome space and time, we have destroyed our own brotherhood!
g. Anybody has unlimited freedom to be himself at anytime. Without external factor anyone has full of freedom to learn, to live, to follow any culture and to be himself at any circumstances’.
3. How will these ideas or lessons help you in a practical way, both in your daily personal life and in helping you to create a better world? If so, how?
Any countries development measured by the levels of political, economical and social aspects of the government policies. All those 3 aspects are important for the livelihood improvement of the citizens. The story of Jonathan Livingston sea gull explains how social aspects and cultures innovations and creativity of anyone. To break one’s culture which is not important to the member, shall give time and space to break it step by step. And also we should have patience, intelligence and demonstration skill to convince the whole community. Our learning, experimenting and reasoning skill will lead us to be fantastic influential person. And I got good lesson from the story and I concluded that learning and innovation can influence culture and has no end in the world.
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.
“One school is finished, the time has come for another to begin”, this quote is impressed me too.
I found that this quote is very attractive and has ideal concept. Yes! It is universal truth, after successful completion of any level of school, indicates that, the time has come to begin the other level. And we can say that after completion of one profession, there is another profession which is new for us and to be started lessons.
“The gull sees farthest who flies highest”
Most of the time peoples at the same level are not ready to accept comments and new ideas rather looking for externals that are popular. But this kind of consideration may lead us to the expensive cost or unwise use of resource will be occurred. And we may lose which is nearer resources. These points help me to consider and explosively to use nearer one other than the distant.
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?
“They came in the evening, then and found Jonathan gliding peaceful and alone through his beloved sky. The two gulls that appeared at his wings were pure as star light and the glow from them was gentle and friendly in the high night air”, this point is unclear to me
And they said that we come from your flock and we are your brothers and we have to come to take you higher and to take you home. But this idea contradicts the low of gulls and how those 2 gulls come to him, is it represented by the flock?, once Jonathan breaks the law, he is out casted now, so why simply they come to him?
And also I am not clear, why Jonathan Livingston tries to thinking to demonstrate to the flock, how he is able to get rare and testy fish and to dine delicate insects; Because, this is the result of flying technique. And why he only tries to convince the flock only by showing different flying techniques?
6. Did the book contain exercises for the reader to complete? If so, did you complete all of the exercises and did you find them helpful?
None
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.
I found that the story is too interesting for the readers. But it has some limitations on the way of writing paragraph, text position ( it is not justify), phonetics and spelling error is too much and nothing consideration is given to it. Problem of paragraphing , sentence structured with spelling error, texts are not justified and others decreased the value of a book.
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? 9
C. How easy was it to understand? 9
D. Would you recommend it to others? 10
E. What is the overall rating you would give it? 9