Okay,
Welcome back.
So by now you've tried the Two Birds Launch Exercise,
And in this video I just want to debrief you a little bit and point out a couple of things to pay attention to as you continue to do the Two Birds Launch Exercise over the next few days.
So a couple things to notice.
The first thing is that when you're in the seat of the second bird,
You can watch everything.
You can watch people coming in and out of the room you're in,
Car alarms going off on the street outside,
An itch on your face.
You can watch yourself scratching your itch on your face.
Everything is getting perceived by the second bird.
It sees everything.
It's watching everything and judging nothing.
And an interesting way to think about it is that the first bird is like a spotlight of attention,
And the second bird,
When you're sitting in the seat of the second bird,
There is no spotlight of attention.
It's kind of more like a floodlight,
Or even more accurately,
It's more like a light bulb that's not pointed in any specific direction at all,
And it just takes everything in and watches everything.
And it's really sort of an amazing difference of perspective,
And you can really feel that difference when you're sitting properly in the seat of the second bird.
So when you're meditating,
You can do your regular thing.
You can do your Just Preside Launch Exercise or BOL Launch Exercise.
Then you say,
Hang on a minute.
You don't criticize the quality of your meditation.
If it gets out of hand,
You just let it run,
And Monkey Mind will pull you back,
And all of that's fine.
But then,
Overriding all of this,
Anytime you want,
You can always just shift over to the position of the second bird,
And even watch yourself meditating.
You can actually just watch yourself saying,
Okay,
Hang on a minute,
And you can watch Monkey Mind running circles around you.
And the beautiful thing is,
Once you get the hang of shifting over to the second bird,
It really is kind of like riding a bike.
Because after you've practiced and you know what it feels like to sit in the seat of the second bird,
It's a very familiar and natural thing for you eventually,
When it gets to be that way.
You'll know what it's like,
And you'll never forget,
And nobody can ever take it away from you.
Because I mean,
The two birds imagery,
So it comes from the Upanishads,
Right?
And it actually dates back to between 2000 and 2500 years ago.
So it's ancient,
It's pre-Buddhist,
And it's actually technically pre-Hindu.
So this is a bit of wisdom from way,
Way back.
And the amazing thing about the two birds technique is that now,
Going forward,
When you're dealing with Monkey Mind,
You've kind of got its number now.
And what I mean by that is,
With the second bird technique,
There is now always a point,
A backstop.
If Monkey Mind's really getting out of control,
You can always retreat to the seat of the second bird and just watch everything quietly.
And in so doing,
You can always get a break from Monkey Mind.
It's like when you played tag as a kid,
Right?
And up to now,
It's just been regular free tag.
Everyone's just running around,
You're running from Monkey Mind,
And there's no base.
And now having the idea of the second bird,
As you're practicing and you get better and better at it,
Better and better at shifting your weight and shifting your center of gravity over the second bird,
Well now in this game of tag,
There's actually a base.
And when you go back to base,
And you touch base,
Nothing else can tag you,
Nothing else can touch you.
And the beautiful thing about it is,
You realize that you just do not have to be in the seat of the Monkey Mind,
In the seat of the first bird,
If you don't want to.
And to realize this,
And to really understand how to get there on your own as a personal life skill,
Is a hugely powerful and liberating gift that will serve you well all throughout the rest of your life.
You can use the second bird exercise as a launch exercise,
But I think as it's obvious now,
You can also use it as a drift exercise.
And you can also use it as an integration exercise,
Which is an exercise you use to tap into the meditative state in the middle of your day,
Even when you're not technically meditating.
You're in the middle of a meeting,
You're in the middle of running errands or doing chores,
And you can just silently,
Imperceptibly shift into the seat of the second bird and start watching everything.
And then,
And now eventually,
When sitting in the seat of the second bird becomes your regular resting mode,
Right,
When it becomes not 1% of your time,
But over the years,
It builds itself up to being 99 to 100% of your time,
Where your normal state is to be sitting in the seat of the second bird.
When you get to that point,
It can lead you all the way to the very point of enlightenment and awakening itself.
But that is a topic for another video.
So I hope you found this helpful,
And please feel free to contact me directly with any questions you might have.
