Jonathan Livingston Seagull presents four fundamental ideas on the nature of deity that find a place in the major religions of the world and dovetails with the theosophical world view.
The greatest mystery, is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of the earth and the galaxy of the stars, but that in this prison, we can fashion images of ourselves sufficiently powerful, to deny our own nothingness.” So writes, Andre Malraux in the Walnut Trees of Altenberg.
And Jonathan Livingston Seagull is one of these images so fashioned.
Additionally the images invoked by this novella is no hodgepodge of contradictory religious messages as some commentators assert but rather a set of fundamental ideas on the nature of deity embedded in the major religions of the world.
For those wanting a bit more perspective before we explore the teachings passed on in this novella, we suggest the overview in our article entitled Jonathan and an acquaintance with the storyline in another called Jonathan – The Narrative.
God Immanent and Transcendent
Jonathan we may note is no ‘fallen flyer’
The first essential truth writes Alice Bailey is the fact of God Immanent and Transcendent. Jonathan we may note is no ‘fallen flyer’. He is not burdened with the weight of original sin needing God’s help, but an idea of perfection that can fulfil itself. The Eastern faiths have ever emphasized God Immanent deep within the human heart, nearer than hands and feet – the Self, the Atman. As Jonathan puts it, “you got to understand that a seagull is an unlimited idea of freedom, an image of the Great Gull.”
And the idea also finds its place in Christianity which professes that we are made in the image and likeness of God. But the West looks outward and the stress in Christianity has been on God Transcendent: the Judge, the Eternal One. This is also the view point of the Muslim and the Jew.
The Bhagavad Gita reconciles the east and the west, the inner and the outer: “Having pervaded the whole universe with a fragment of myself I remain.”
The Immortality and Eternal Persistence of Man
The second essential truth is Immortality and Eternal Persistence. The spirit in man writes Alice Bailey is “undying”. In support we find in the Bhagavad Gita the teaching that “There never was a time when I was not, or you, or these rulers of men. Nor will there ever be a time when all of us shall cease to be.”
She continues “It (the spirit in man) forever endures, progressing from point to point and stage to stage on the Path of Evolution.” And this assertion necessarily involves two great natural laws: The Law of Rebirth and the Law of Cause and Effect.
The Law of Rebirth and the Law of Cause and Effect
As he came from Earth now, above the clouds and in close formation with two brilliant gulls, he saw that his own body was growing as bright as theirs. True the same young Jonathan Seagull was there that had always lived behind his golden eyes, but the outer form had changed.
Here clearly is the Law of Rebirth in action. And the following extract – a conversation between Jonathan and his instructor Sullivan – mirrors the Law of Cause and Effect.
…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.
The teachings here then makes the school of life a constantly recurring experience in which “there is an infinite possibility to achieve perfection in ascending levels of consciousness and further dimensions of time” until man has fulfilled Christ’s injunction: Be ye therefore perfect even as your father in Heaven is perfect.
Clearly this message dovetails with the East and the Bhagavad Gita in particular. But what of the West and the near East?
Reservations on the Law of Rebirth and the Law of Cause and Effect
It is appointed unto man to die once, and after that comes judgement.Hebrews 9:27
The churches of the West and near East do affirm the Immortality of Man. But they have made eternal happiness dependent upon the acceptance of theological dogma: be a true Christian, Jew or Muslim and as your reward you will live in some sort of paradise hitched on to the end of life. And if you don’t make it here there is purification for the Jew, the bonfire of Hell for the Christian and separation from Allah for the Muslim.
Christianity in particular has refused to recognize the Law of Rebirth. Hebrews 9:27 writes one commentator nails that coffin shut: “It is appointed unto man to die once, and after that comes judgement.” And while Christian commentators are willing to admit that pagan practices are embedded in the Christian ritual they are adamant that the ‘reincarnation heresy’ never made it into the New Testament.
This seems unlikely given the fact that this belief was popular at the time of the historical Jesus. The belief in reincarnation was propagated through the pagan religions which had emanated from Babylonia and Persia. And a careful reading of the New Testament will reveal some passages which can be so interpreted. Nonetheless the Law of Rebirth, despite its absence from the Christian cannon, is so widely believed that it remains one of the fundamental ideas of mankind.
Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reapGalatians 6:7
The Law of Cause and Effect is dimly echoed in the Pauline pronouncement “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap”. It is an important teaching in Christianity that God is not mocked: we cannot escape the consequence of our actions. In Islam we find echoes of it in this declaration of the Quran: “Whoever does a good deed; he shall be repaid ten fold and whoever does evil, he shall be repaid with evil.”
This teaching is very much in principle the Law of Cause and Effect, also known as the Law of Karma. It says everything that we do as participants in this interconnecting community of man has repercussions and one way or another and it comes back to us. Christianity and Islam confine this law and its workings to a single lifetime.
However in Eastern religions and past cultures there is a fervent belief that the total result of a person’s deeds and actions during the successive phases of the person’s existence and over many lifetimes determines the consequences that person faces within a particular lifetime.
The Brotherhood of Man
There is no difference in the essential nature of man as the source is singular – The One Life that informs all.Alice Bailey
At the end of Jonathan’s long life two radiant birds arrive. They are even more skilled at flying than Jonathan. And what’s more they announce that they are his brothers.
“All men” write Alice Bailey “are sons of the Father and therefore brothers.” Developing her argument further she writes, “…all men are equal ; it is only in relation to time and in the extent to which progress has been made in the revelation of innate divinity in all its fullness that temporary differences become apparent.”
The difference between Jonathan and the radiant birds is only in degree of consciousness. They are just further along the path, towards revealing their divine nature. And so it is with the human family. Between individuals the only difference is in degree of consciousness. There is no difference in the essential nature of man as the source is singular – The One Life that informs all. That One Life has many names. Sri Ramakrishna explains –
The Reality is one and the same; the difference is in name and form. There are three or four ghats on a lake. The Hindus, who drink at one place call it ‘jal.’ The Mussalmans at another place call it ‘pani.’ And the English at a third place call it ‘water’. All three denote one and the same thing, the difference is in name only.
From this perspective, and it may not be one shared by zealous believers of individual faiths, the true expression of brotherhood would be the establishment of what today looks like a utopian vision: a world based on sharing and global cooperation and free from social and economic injustice. And this brotherhood is not a collectivist ideology, imposed on society for their “own good”, but one respectful of our divergent cultures and beliefs.
In the final analysis it calls for personal sacrifice to advance this ideal.
Fletcher: I don’t understand how you manage to love a mob of birds that has just tried to kill you.
Jonathan: 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.
The Periodic Return
…Jonathan returns to anchor his understanding on the Earth plane.
Christians look for the imminent return of Christ. Jews await their Messiah. Hindus look to the return of Krishna. Buddhist expect him as Maitreya. Muslims anticipate the Imam Mahdi. They all look forward to a superior being to bring a fresh revelation of divine quality, inspiring men to a greater sense of brotherhood and a restructuring of the world order.
This idea of world teachers and saviours is echoed in Jonathan Livingston Seagull:
“…the more he practiced his kindness lessons, and the more he worked to know the nature of love, the more he wanted to go back to Earth.
And so Jonathan returns to anchor his understanding on the Earth plane. He gathers around him those willing to learn and when his disciples are sufficiently far along he shimmers out of this world into another.
His final message to Fletcher, his chief disciple and his followers is to “keep finding yourself a little more each day”.
The Four Great Truths
Jonathan Livingston Seagull embraces four great spiritual truths –
- God Immanent and Transcendent.
- The Immortality and Eternal Persistence of Man
- The Brotherhood of Man
- The Periodic Return
These are teachings, accepted in whole or in part by the world’s leading religions, and regarded by the theosophical movement as essential teachings for all mankind.
Image: library.fullerton.edu500
