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As a Man Thinketh
Assessment by Nancy Chebet (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
Allen writes that “A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all of his thoughts. And since cause and effect are as absolute and undeviating in the hidden realm of thought as in the world of visible and material things,” we determine (or at least heavily influence) our situation in life… essentially sleeping in the bed we have made. According to the author, “Man is made or unmade by himself” and can improve his lot in life by thinking “right” thoughts and by the right choice of the application of thought (i.e., choosing the “right” actions and behaviors).
“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 giving time are an indication of his entire character, but that those circumstances are so intimately connected with some vital thought-element within himself that, for the time being, they are indispensable to his development.” Essentially, that we are where we are based on our thoughts and our actions. Not that external factors don’t have influence, but that on balance we are each the master of our own destiny.
“The body is the servant of the mind. It obeys the operations of the mind, whether they be deliberately chosen or automatically expressed and that, upon the body, “habits of thought will produce their own effects, good or bad.” Ever heard the saying clean body, clean mind, clean living? That’s what Allen is getting at here; that “The people who live in fear of disease are the people who get it and that a sour face does not come by chance; it is made by sour thoughts.”
They who have no central purpose in their life fall an easy prey to petty worries, fears, troubles, and self-pitying’s which lead to failure, unhappiness, and loss, for weakness cannot persist in the power-evolving universe. “To put away aimlessness and weakness and to begin to think with purpose is to enter the ranks of those strong one who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment.The will to do springs from the knowledge that we can do. Doubt and fear are the great enemies of knowledge, and he who encourages them, who does not slay them, thwarts himself at every step.”
“All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts and his ending statement: “He who would accomplish little need sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much. He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.” I’ve always believed that, when combined with a purpose, hard work and persistence are key elements to success. You’ve got to be able to fight for what you believe in and be willing to sacrifice to achieve it.
“To desire is to obtain; to aspire is to achieve. Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be; your ideal is the prophecy of what you shall at last unveil. The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn; the bird waits in the egg. And in the highest vision of a soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.”
“That exquisite poise of character that we call serenity is the last lesson of culture. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. It is the result of long and patient effort in self-control. Its presence is an indication of ripened experience, and of a more than ordinary knowledge of the laws and operations of thought. Keep your hands firmly upon the helm of thought.”
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.
i. Dreams are seedlings for realities.
You can nurture the dream to eat the fruits later or you can let it stay dormant, choice is yours.
ii. Your mind can be cultivated like a garden, allowing you to choose which thoughts to grow (flowers) and which to remove (weeds).
Whether cultivated or neglected, the mind will produce fruit based on the seeds planted within it.
iii. To be in the world and yet not of the world is the highest perfection
I always set my standards and achieve them not matter what people say.
iv. We may like to imagine that we can keep our thoughts but they soon crystallize into habits and govern our circumstances
I take good care of my habit because it will define who I am.
v. The sole and supreme use of suffering is to purify, to burn out all that is useless and impure-take example of refining gold from the ore
What I do I usually choose my circle, the people who encourage me to achieve more and challenges me in life makes me be who I am without judging me.
vi. You are not fit to command and control unless you have succeeded in commanding and controlling yourself.
vii. Self-realization, is important and remember you cannot give what you do not have, so before I advise someone, I have to check myself first if I am worthy to do so.
If you are happy, it is because you dwell into happy thoughts; if you are miserable, it is because you dwell in debilitating thoughts. Positive thought makes you positive and you attract them, if you think negatively you will end up being a negative person nothing will make you happy.
viii. It is useless to desire more time, if you are already wasting what little you.
If you cannot manage the time you have to do something even if you are given the whole day, you will do totally nothing, we have enough time to do what we are required to do and achieve more in life.
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?
These ideas will help me understand that my brain is a powerful warehouse that is supposed to be used well.
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 man’s mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.”
“Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is but saying that nothing can come from corn but corn, nothing from nettles but nettles. Men understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world (though its operation there is just as simple and undeviating), and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.”
“Man is made or unmade by himself; in the armory of thought he forges the weapons by which he destroys himself; he also fashions the tools with which he builds for himself heavenly mansions of joy and strength and peace.”
“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.”
“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.”
“To live continually in thoughts of ill will, cynicism, suspicion, and envy, is to be confined in a self-made prison hole. But to think well of all, to be cheerful with all, to patiently learn to find the good in all such unselfish thoughts are the very portals of heaven; and to dwell day by day in thoughts of peace toward every creature will bring abounding peace to their possessor.”
“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.”
“Thought allied fearlessly to purpose becomes creative force: he who knows this is ready to become something higher and stronger than a mere bundle of wavering thoughts and fluctuating sensations; he who does this has become the conscious and intelligent wielder of his mental powers.”
“A man should conceive of a legitimate purpose in his heart, and set out to accomplish it. He should make this purpose the centralizing point of his thoughts. It may take the form of a spiritual ideal, or it may be a worldly object, according to his nature at the time being; but whichever it is, he should steadily focus his thought forces upon the object which he has set before him. He should make this purpose his supreme duty, and should devote himself to its attainment, not allowing his thoughts to wander away into ephemeral fancies, longings, and imaginings. This is the royal road to self-control and true concentration of thought. Even if he fails again and again to accomplish his purpose (as he necessarily must until weakness is overcome), the strength of character gained will be the measure of his true success, and this will form a new starting point for future power and triumph.”
“Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts are controlled and purified, makes the winds and the storms of the soul obey him.”
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 book is well presented.
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?
Our brain is a powerful tool and we have to use it well for better results.
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.
The book is easy to read and not complex.
Pease 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
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Assessment by Nancy Chebet (Kenya)
1. What is the main idea that the author is trying to convey in the book?
Jonathan wants to be limitless. When he is given this new body, he believes it will allow him to transcend the limitations of his old one but it does not. Jonathan does not yet realize that transcendence depends on the unification of mind, body, and spirit. Jonathan is entering a new realm of being. Doing so is evidently taxing and disorienting for him, as he falls asleep almost immediately upon arrival. Although Jonathan doesn’t know where he is, what’s certain is that he is one of just a few gulls in this realm. This suggests that Jonathan is even more special than he previously realized.
As Jonathan joins the two other gulls and flies up to heaven, he realizes that his body is growing bright and gleaming, too. His new body feels the same, but flies much more easily and more surely than his old body ever did with half the effort, and twice the speed. As he pushes himself to new speeds, he is sad to realize that this body, too, has limits to what it can do. In heaven, Jonathan thinks, there should not be any limits at all.
As the clouds break apart, Jonathan’s guides wish him “happy landings,” and then disappear. Jonathan is now flying over the sea toward a jagged shoreline. He can see a few seagulls up ahead, but he is stunned by how few gulls there are around. He thinks heaven ought to be full of gulls. Jonathan also notices that he is feeling very tired; he knows that gulls in heaven are never supposed to be tired. As he proceeds closer to the shoreline, he feels his memories of life on earth blurring and falling away. The other gulls come in to meet Jonathan, and help him land on the beach. As soon as he gets to the shore, Jonathan falls straight to sleep.
As the days go by, Jonathan realizes that there is as much to learn about flight in this place as there had been on earth but things are slightly different. All around him are gulls who think the same way he does; the most important thing to each of them is to “reach out and touch perfection” in flight. All of the other gulls here spend every hour of the day practicing flight. As Jonathan joins the other gulls, he finds himself at times forgetting completely about his old life and his old Flock, remembering them all only now and then and only just for a moment.
One afternoon, Jonathan asks Sullivan, his instructor, why there aren’t more gulls in this heaven. Sullivan replies that Jonathan is a “one-in-a-million bird,” and that most of the gulls in this heaven came to it very slowly. Sullivan believes that every bird in this heaven has perhaps gone through many lives before they realized that there was more to life than eating, fighting, and gaining power in their Flocks. He believes each bird here has lived ten thousand lives, and that the birds will now choose their next world through the things they learn in this one. Sullivan reveals that he believes that Jonathan learned so much so quickly back on Earth, that he only had to live his one 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.
This book touched me with how it uses personification of birds but in the real sense their human behaviors, this helped me to settle with each characteristic of the birds but in real sense it is our lives of day to day.
i. Jonathan Livingston Seagull
The protagonist of the novel, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, often called Jon by his friends and students, is a bird who is different from all the other members of his Flock of gulls. Obsessed with flight, Jonathan does not see the point in flying slowly and gracelessly only in pursuit of food. As Jonathan studies flight on his own, his aerodynamics, speed, and abilities improve. However, his feats do not impress the other gulls in his Flock rather, they render him Outcast, and he is banished to the Far Cliffs. Jonathan meets two shimmering gulls, and is transported up to another realm, where special gulls go to train and learn about their place in the world. With the help of Chiang, the Elder Gull, Jonathan begins to see past the limits of his body. As he realizes that his mind, spirit, and body exist across all of space and time, he masters instantaneous transportation. He brings the things he has learned back to earth and gathers a small group of pupils whom he instructs in flight. One day, feeling he has succeeded in his mission but wary of the rumors that he is divine, or even the Son of the mythical Great Gull, Jonathan begins to shimmer and ascends to heaven, leaving his legacy in the hands of his star pupil and friend Fletcher Lynd Seagull. In the years after Jonathan’s passing, his methods against all odds become revered the world over, and the worshipful cult of personality that crops up around Jonathan feverishly overtakes the earth. Jonathan is humble but ambitious, and his curiosity, drive, and desire to help others above all else combined with the misinterpretation of his messages and his simultaneous deification make him an analog and an allegory for the biblical figure of Jesus Christ.
ii. Fletcher Lynd Seagull
A young gull who, like Jonathan, is drawn to experiments with flight. When Fletcher is introduced in the narrative, he has just been Outcast from his own Flock, and as he makes his way out to the Far Cliffs, he meets Jonathan, who has just returned from the plane beyond earth to spread the wisdom he has garnered to the earthly Flocks. Fletcher becomes Jonathan’s friend and pupil, and is “nearly a perfect flight-student” due to the combination of his strength and dexterity along with his “blazing drive” to learn. When Jonathan departs the earth after rumors of his being divine have started, he leaves his legacy in the hands of Fletcher, his closest confidante, and Fletcher soon bears the burden of having been the closest living gull to Jonathan. Fletcher must contend with his own specific kind of celebrity, then, and even in death, Fletcher is revered as a chosen, special friend of the “divine” Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
iii. Chiang
The Elder Gull of Jonathan’s new Flock in the plane beyond earth. He is an enormously skilled flyer, and has been empowered by his age rather than “enfeebled” by it like most Elder Gulls. It is Chiang who encourages Jonathan to stop seeing himself as “trapped inside a limited body,” and begin to understand that his true nature is as every gull’s true nature is “everywhere at once across space and time.” Chiang’s instruction is instrumental in Jonathan’s evolution and progression, and with Chiang’s help, Jonathan is able to traverse great distances in the blink of an eye.
iv. Anthony Seagull
A doubtful bird who lives in the time two hundred years after Jonathan’s departure from earth. Anthony wonders what the meaning of life is, and refuses to believe in the overzealous doctrine which canonizes Jonathan and has overtaken much of seagull life. As Anthony attempts suicide by dive-bombing into the ocean, he is stopped short by a bird who admires his flight skills. The bird introduces himself to Anthony as “Jon.”
v. Elder Gull
The Elder Gull of Jonathan’s original Flock on earth. The Elder Gull proclaims Jonathan Outcast and banishes him to the Far Cliffs as a result of his reckless experimentations with flight
vi. Sullivan
Jonathan’s instructor when he reaches the plane beyond earth. Sullivan encourages Jonathan’s further experimentation with flight techniques and practices, and proclaims Jonathan the most fearless gull he himself has mentored in “ten thousand years.”
vii. Henry Calvin Gull
One of Jonathan’s flight students
viii. Terrence Lowell Gull
An Outcast bird who becomes one of Jonathan’s pupils.
ix. Kirk Maynard Gull
A lame gull who wants to become one of Jonathan’s pupils despite his wrecked wing. Once Jonathan shows him that he is a free gull, Kirk is seemingly miraculously restored and able to fly. All these birds represent our people in the society there are people who are in comfort zone and don’t want to push themselves and also there are people who are aggressive and want to learn more and more no matter what the society says.
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?
These ideas will help me to unlock my potential without minding on what people will say.
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.
“Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight; how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else, Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.”
“Jonathan felt better for his decision to be just another one of the flock. There would be no ties now to the force that had driven him to learn, there would be no more challenge and no more failure. And it was pretty, just to stop thinking, and fly through the dark, toward the lights above the beach.”
“The wind was a monster roar at his head. Seventy miles per hour, ninety, a hundred and twenty and faster still. The wing-strain now at a hundred and forty miles per hour wasn’t nearly as hard as it had been before at seventy, and with the faintest twist of his wingtips he eased out of the dive and shot above the waves, a gray cannonball under the moon. He closed his eyes to slits against the wind and rejoiced. A hundred forty miles per hour! And under control! If I dive from five thousand feet instead of two thousand, I wonder how fast. His vows of a moment before were forgotten, swept away in that great swift wind. Yet he felt guiltless, breaking the promises he had made himself. Such promises are only for the gulls that accept the ordinary. One who has touched excellence in his learning has no need of that kind of promise.”
“He was alive, trembling ever so slightly with delight, proud that his fear was under control. Then without ceremony he hugged in his forewings, extended his short, angled wingtips, and plunged directly toward the sea. By the time he passed four thousand feet he had reached terminal velocity, the wind was a solid beating wall of sound against which he could move no faster. He was flying now straight down, at two hundred fourteen miles per hour. He swallowed, knowing that if his wings unfolded at that speed he’d be blown into a million tiny shreds of seagull. But the speed was power, and the speed was joy, and the speed was pure beauty.”
“Jonathan Livingston Seagull! Stand to Center! The Elder’s words sounded in a voice of highest ceremony. Stand to Center meant only great shame or great honor. Stand to Center for Honor was the way the gulls’ foremost leaders were marked. Of course, he thought, the Breakfast Flock this morning; they saw the Breakthrough! But I want no honors. I have no wish to be leader. I want only to share what I’ve found, to show those horizons out ahead for us all. He stepped forward.”
“Jonathan Livingston Seagull, said the Elder, Stand to Center for Shame in the sight of your fellow gulls!”
“It felt like being hit with a board. His knees went weak, his feathers sagged, there was roaring in his ears. Centered for shame? Impossible! The Breakthrough! They can’t understand! They’re wrong, they’re wrong!”
“Jonathan Seagull spent the rest of his days alone, but he flew way out beyond the Far Cliffs. His one sorrow was not solitude, it was that other gulls refused to believe the glory of flight that awaited them; they refused to open their eyes and see. He learned more each day. He learned that a streamlined high-speed dive could bring him to find the rare and tasty fish that schooled ten feet below the surface of the ocean: he no longer needed fishing boats and stale bread for survival. He learned to sleep in the air, setting a course at night across the offshore wind, covering a hundred miles from sunset to sunrise. With the same inner control, he flew through heavy sea-fogs and climbed above them into dazzling clear skies in the very times when every other gull stood on the ground, knowing nothing but mist and rain. He learned to ride the high winds far inland, to dine there on delicate insects. What he had once hoped for the Flock, he now gained for himself alone; he learned to fly, and was not sorry for the price that he had paid. 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 thought, he lived a long fine life indeed.”
“Do you have any idea how many lives we must have gone through before we even got the first idea that there is more to life than eating, or fighting, or power in the Flock? A thousand lives, Jon, ten thousand! And then another hundred lives until we began to learn that there is such a thing as perfection, and another hundred again to get the idea that our purpose for living is to find that perfection and show it forth. The same rule holds for us now, of course: we choose our next world through what we learn in this one. Learn nothing, and the next world is the same as this one, all the same limitations and lead weights to overcome.”
“I want to learn to fly like that,” Jonathan said, and a strange light glowed in his eyes. Tell me what to do.”
“Chiang spoke slowly and watched the younger gull ever so carefully. To fly as fast as thought, to anywhere that is, he said, you must begin by knowing that you have already arrived. The trick, according to Chiang, was for Jonathan to stop seeing himself as trapped inside a limited body that had a forty-two-inch wingspan and performance that could be plotted on a chart. The trick was to know that his true nature lived, as perfect as an unwritten number, everywhere at once across space and time.”
“Forget about faith! Chiang said it time and again. You didn’t need faith to fly, you needed to understand flying. This is just the same. Now try again. Then one day Jonathan, standing on the shore, closing his eyes, concentrating, all in a flash knew what Chiang had been telling him. Why, that’s true! I am a perfect, unlimited gull! He felt a great shock of joy. Good! said Chiang, and there was victory in his voice. Jonathan opened his eyes. He stood alone with the Elder on a totally different seashore trees down to the water’s edge, twin yellow suns turning overhead.”
“Jonathan stayed and worked with the new birds coming in, who were all very bright and quick with their lessons. But the old feeling came back, and he couldn’t help but think that there might be one or two gulls back on Earth who would be able to learn, too. How much more would he have known by now if Chiang had come to him on the day that he was Outcast!”
“Sully, I must go back, Jonathan said at last your students are doing well. They can help you bring the newcomers along. I think I’ll miss you, Jonathan.”
“Sully, for shame and don’t be foolish! What are we trying to practice every day? lf our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we’ve destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don’t you think that we might see each other once or twice?
Fletcher Lynd Seagull was still quite young, but already he knew that no bird had ever been so harshly treated by any Flock, or with so much injustice.”
“I don’t care what they say, he thought fiercely, and his vision blurred as he flew out toward the Far Cliffs. There’s so much more to flying than just flapping around from place to place! A mosquito does that! One little barrel-roll around the Elder Gull, just for fun, and I’m Outcast! Are they blind? Can’t they see? Can’t they think of the glory that it’ll be when we really learn to fly?”
“Don’t be harsh on them, Fletcher Seagull. In casting you out, the other gulls have only hurt themselves, and one day they will know this, and one day they will see what you see. Forgive them, and help them to understand. An inch from his right wingtip flew the most brilliant white gull in all the world, gliding effortlessly along, not moving a feather, at what was very nearly Fletcher’s top speed.”
“Low and calm, the voice went on within his thought, demanding an answer. Fletcher Lynd Seagull, do you want to fly? Yes I Want to Fly!”
“We’re not ready! said Henry Calvin Gull. We’re not welcome! We’re Outcast! We can’t force ourselves to go where we’re not welcome, can we?”
“We’re free to go where we wish and to be what we are,” and he lifted from the sand and turned east, toward the home grounds of the Flock.”
“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. Let’s begin with Level Flight. And saying that, he understood all at once that his friend had quite honestly been no more divine than Fletcher himself.”
“Fletcher had magically risen, surrounded by holy rays, and the clouds had closed again over the scene to a great chorus of gull-voices singing. So the pile of pebbles on the Rock of Oneness, in sacred memory of Gull Fletcher, was the biggest pile of pebbles on any coastline anywhere on earth. Other piles were built everywhere in replica, and each Tuesday afternoon the Flock walked over to stand around the pebbles and hear the miracles of Jonathan Livingston Seagull and his Gifted Divine Students.”
“In time, the rites and ceremonies that were planted around the name of Jonathan Seagull became obsessive. Any thinking gull altered course in the air so as not to even fly in sight of the cairns, built as they were on the ceremony and superstition of those who preferred excuses for failure instead of hard work and greatness. The thinking gulls, paradoxically, closed their minds at the sound of certain words: Flight, Cairn Great Gull, Jonathan. On all other matters they were the most lucid, honest birds since Jonathan himself, but at the mention of his name, or any of the other terms so badly mauled by the Official Local Students, their minds snapped shut with the sound of trap doors closing.”
“It’s not flight, they’d assure themselves over and again, It’s just a way of finding what’s true. So, in rejecting the students they became students themselves. In rejecting the name of Jonathan Seagull, they practiced the message he had brought to the Flock.”
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 book is well articulated.
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?
We learn every day and the book gives avenue of learning and determination on a daily basis.
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.
The book is easy to read and not complex.
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