Now the third milestone is the one where you're able to actually shift over to the second bird when you're not meditating.
And of course when the first bird is calm and not upset.
Right,
So this is when you're quote unquote not meditating,
You're in the middle of your day,
But you're still able to slip over into the seat of the second bird.
And this is a skill we teach you when we teach you the integration exercises.
And the first bird second bird imagery can itself be used as a very powerful integration exercise.
But the reason this third milestone is so important is because when you're shifting over to the second bird in the middle of the day,
You're actually strengthening your muscle.
You're working out your meditation muscle all throughout the day,
Even when you're not meditating.
And what this does is it ends up accelerating the process of strengthening your meditation muscle.
And it's the strengthening of the meditation muscle with integration exercises in this third milestone that then naturally leads to the fourth milestone.
And the fourth milestone then is the one where even when your monkey mind is upset and attached and excited and desirous or fearful,
Even when that first bird,
That monkey mind is very attached,
You can still shift over into the seat of the second bird when you're meditating and even when you're not meditating.
Once you can overcome being upset or very overexcited and shift over into the seat of the second bird,
It doesn't matter whether you're meditating or not.
Once you know how to do that,
You can do it in any state,
In any mode.
And that is obviously a very,
Very powerful skill and level of mastery to be at.
Now some may say,
Well,
Yeah,
The reason you can do that is because even though you're very upset,
Your meditation muscle is so strong that you can pull yourself out of that ditch and out of that deep hole.
And that's why you're able to do this and that's really what's going on with the fourth milestone.
But the flip side is you could also say that because your meditation muscle is so strong and because you're flexing it and resting in the seat of the second bird even when you're not meditating,
You could argue that because of that,
You never really get that upset at anything in the first place.
So you never go deep into that hole,
Deep into that ditch in the first place.
So it really is a combination of the two.
Your muscle for getting yourself out of the ditch is very,
Very strong but then at the same time,
Because it's strong,
You never let yourself fall that deeply into the ditch in the first place.
And that is a wonderful,
Wonderful milestone to attain in your practice.
Now the fifth milestone is very powerful.
The fifth milestone is the one where you are in the seat of the second bird for the majority of your time,
Up to 99% of the time.
And you only pull out the monkey mind or the first bird when you need it to get something practical done.
And this is what we referred to in an earlier video in the Monkey Minds Study Series where we talked about treating your monkey mind like a sword.
So when you're not using it,
Rest in the seat of the second bird and keep your sword in its sheath.
And when you do need to use it,
You just pull it out and do your analysis,
Do your chopping,
Do your argument,
Your negotiation,
Be happy,
Be sad,
Whatever.
And when you're done with it,
You clean off your sword,
Give it a quick sharpen and put it back in its sheath.
And when you don't need it,
You're not waving your sword around,
Right?
You're not picking your teeth with it.
You're not scratching your backside with it.
And this fifth milestone is very,
Very powerful because you're starting to rest in that default mode and it is really the complete flip side.
When you started to learn meditation and you were in the seat of the first bird 99% of the time,
Except when you were able to have an exception.
So you were in the seat of the second bird by exception.
And in this milestone,
You're actually in the seat of the second bird as the default and you shift over to the first bird by exception.
