Nonduality and Seagulls!

[Guest guest]

Tidbits from "Jonathon Livingston Seagull," by Richard Bachman...

"Nonduality and Fiction" is the appropriate category.

 

--------------------------

"Sullivan sighed, but he did not argue. 'I think I'll miss you, Jonathon,'

was all he said.

 

'Sully, for shame!' Jonathan said in reproach, 'and don't be foolish! What

are we trying to practice every day? If our friendship depends on things

like 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?'

 

Sullivan Seagull laughed in spite of himself. 'You crazy bird,' he said

kindly.

 

--------------------------

 

"The next night from the Flock came Kirk Maynard Gull, wobbling across the

sand, dragging his left wing, to collapse at Jonathon's feet. 'Help me,'

he said very quietly, speaking in the way that the dying speak. 'I want to

fly more than anything else in the world...'

 

'Come along then,' said Jonathon. 'Climb with me away from the ground, and

we'll begin.'

 

'You don't understand. My wing. I can't move my wing.'

 

'Maynard Gull, you have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here

and now, and nothing can stand in your way. It is the Law of the Great

Gull, the Law that Is.'

 

'Are you saying I can fly?'

 

'I say you are free.'

 

As simply and as quickly as that, Kirk Maynard Gull spreads his wings,

effortlessly, and lifted into the dark night air. The Flock was roused

from sleep by his cry, as loud as he could scream it, from five hundred

feet up; 'I CAN FLY! LISTEN! I CAN FLY!'

 

By sunrise there were nearly a thousand birds standing outside the circle

of students, looking curiously at Maynard. They didn't care whether they

were seen or not, and they listened, trying to understand Jonathan Seagull.

 

He spoke of very simple things--that it is right for a gull to fly, that

freedom is the very nature of his being, that whatever stands against that

freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition or limitation in

any form.

 

'Set aside,' came a voice from the multitude, 'even if it be the Law of the

Flock?'

 

'The only true law is that which leads to freedom,' Jonathan said. 'There

is no other.'

 

'How do you expect us to fly as you fly?' came another voice. 'You are

special and gifted and divine, above other birds.'

 

'Look at Fletcher! Lowell! Charles-Roland! Judy Lee! Are they also

special and gifted and divine? No more than you are, no more than I am.

The only difference, the very only one, is that they have begun to

understand what they really are and have begun to practice it.'

 

---------------------------

 

Offered with Love,

 

Tim

 

-----

Visit The Core of the WWW at:

http://www.eskimo.com/~fewtch/ND/index.html

Music, Poetry, Writings on Nondual Spiritual Topics.