Seagulls are, according to Wikipedia, ' ground nesting carnivores, which will take live food or scavenge opportunistically.' True, but sounds rather violent, and doesn't quite match the image above. This gentle looking bird standing so peacefully on this rock can hardly be credited with being an opportunistic bird. And yet, it is. Some more information on the seagull - - they live on the coast and hardly ever venture out to the high seas
- they live in large, noisy colonies
- they are ingenious, investigative, and very intelligent
- they are communicative
- they have a well-developed social structure
- they are smart enough to use bait to catch fish
- they even resort to kleptoparasitism! as is seen when they unhesitatingly prey on live whales and as the whale surfaces to eat its catch, the gulls grab the flesh
- some species of gulls have learnt to live quite peacefully with humans
- are very rarely adventurous, preferring to stay in the known areas
- live in large noisy colonies made up of our caste, and social structure
- can be very resourceful, are quite curious and intelligent
- are extremely communicative
- can be quite amoral
- while SOME people can live peacefully with other people, there are others who cannot and will not
- There's got to be more to life than fighting for fish heads! How true. There has to be more to life and there is. We need to release our inhibitions, fears, and prejudices, as well as all our previously learnt knowledge to be able to savor and enjoy life. Jonathan wasn't as much interested in eating as he was in flying and learning all there was about flying. Gulls believed that they needed to fly only to get their food, Jonathan loved flying. This is our challenge too. If we think that we are on this earth only to eat, and do only what is required to attain this end, then we are not living. We are not fulfilling our real purpose on earth.
- We CAN lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free. We have to learn and learn and learn. Whatever be our source, there is always a lesson that needs to be learnt, has to be learnt. Many of our own fears are born out of ignorance. And, ignorance is darkness. Once we can pierce that darkness with the light of knowledge, we WILL experience freedom - from all our so-called, perceived limitations.
- Boredom and fear and anger are the reasons that gull’s life is so short and with these gone from his thought, he lived a long fine life indeed. We too are crippled by these three things: boredom, fear and anger. We allow these to govern us and make our lives short and miserable. Best is that, very often, we put ourselves in these positions. If we can battle these and eliminate them (it isn't easy, but it is possible with hard work. And anyway, who said anything good came easy?), our lives will indeed be fine ones.
- It isn’t flying a thousand miles an hour, or a million, or flying at the speed of light. Because any number is a limit, and perfection doesn’t have limits. How often we restrict ourselves with random thoughts that flit through our minds. Buddha says that we must never take our mind seriously, because it misleads us, limits us. Unless we push our minds outwards, how will we know what we can do?
- Each of us is in truth an idea of the Great Gull, an unlimited idea of freedom. Something we need to keep reciting to ourselves till we believe in it. And mind you there is no age for this--you might be a 16, 35, 58, 72, or 90. You can decide at any time that you are most certainly an unlimited idea of freedom. It will so totally release you.......
- To Maynard Gull, a gull born with a short wing, Jonathan said: "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.” And when Maynard asks, "Are you saying I can fly?” Jonathan replies,“I say you are free.” See, we DO have what it takes to extricate and liberate us from the shackles that society, family and our own limited knowledge bind us with. All we have to do is to question these shackles. They will fall off automatically.
- It is right for a gull to fly, freedom is the very nature of his being, and whatever stands against that freedom must be set aside, be it ritual or superstition or limitation in any form. Freedom is the nature of our being too. We need to work towards overcoming our limitations, steadfastly, determinedly and patiently. We need to trash all superstition and all ritualism.
- To fly as fast as thought to anywhere that is now - you begin by knowing that you have already arrived...Knowing and believing, that we have arrived at that state of freedom. Just banish, forcefully if necessary, all doubts and thoughts that are to the contrary.
- Your whole body, from wingtip to wingtip, is nothing more than your thought itself, in a form you can see. Break the chains of your thought, and you break the chains of your body, too ... What an exquisite thought! Something, really, to work for and toward.
- We choose our next world through what we learn in this one.The only thing we take away with us when we finally leave this earth is our knowledge. Knowledge is also the only way we can break our karma. It is the only cause that offers a wonderful effect. How important, then, to spend our energy in learning how to be free.
P.S. The movie is awesome!!!