Jonathan Livingston Seagull a story

"Well, what happens from here?  Where are we going?  Is there no such place as heaven?"
"No, Jonathan, there is no such place.  Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time.  Heaven is being perfect."

Jonathan sighed. The price of being misunderstood, he thought. They call you devil or they call you god.





"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, 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?"

“Come along then.” said Jonathan. “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.”

“Why is it,” Jonathan puzzled, “that the hardest thing in the world is to convince a bird that he is free, and that he can prove it for himself if he’d just spend a little time practicing? Why should that be so hard?”