The Mastery of Love is the result of the first two masteries, the Mastery of Awareness and the Mastery of Transformation. From the Toltec perspective, everything is made of love. Love is Life itself. When we master love, we align with the Spirit of Life passing through us. We are no longer the body, or the mind, or the soul, we are Love. Then every action we take is an expression of love, and love in action can only produce happiness.
- don Miguel Ruiz, “The Mastery of Love”
““Each and every living being is an embodiment of the imperishable Self. The highest purpose of life is to awaken to this truth experientially as the very core of our existence. An awakened master is the midwife to this rebirth as pure consciousness.”
- Mooji
To finalize our exploration of the five agreements, I would like to share with you a passage from Mooji. Mooji shares Satsang around the world and is regarded as a true “heart master”.
This powerful parable of The Two Birds was introduced to me by my beloved yoga teacher, Michelle. The metaphor of the two birds and the depth of the invitation has had a lasting impact on me, and I wish to share it with you now. This parable brilliantly captures the essence of what it means to move beyond our perceived sense of identity into an awareness of our True Self. His teachings invite us to truly SEE and LISTEN and provide an access point to understanding what it means to be skeptical while listening.
THE TWO BIRDS
by Mooji
Some time ago, I saw a picture depicting a parable from the Bhagavad Gita. It showed two birds in a tree, and one of them was building a nest. This one is flying off collecting things, arranging the twigs—it’s active, doing many things.
Above this bird, on another branch, is a second bird. It looks identical to the first bird, but it’s not building anything. It is just observing. It’s not building a self-image out of its perceiving, and it’s not deeply interested in any aspect of what it sees. Its perceiving is happening quite spontaneously without effort or judgment. There’s a silence there, that feeling of Being without thought. Just looking.
This is a beautiful portrait of who we are.
These two birds are connected. The first bird represents our dynamic being, the self that is engaged in the world, in future and past, in growing. It is the aspect that is living life with the sense of my family, my children, my work, and so on. The second bird represents that conscious witnessing within us. It is the ability to observe life taking place and activities unfolding, but it is not actually doing anything. It is still within the same body, but it is not manipulating. It is not saying, “I hope this, and I fear that.” No, it is very still. It is simply there, and its seeing is panoramic. It sees not only the first bird, but also the wind in the trees, the sky—everything is observed with a kind of neutrality.
Initially the first bird is very identified with building the nest. It may not even be aware of the second bird. But as soon as it is able to be quiet, it becomes aware of the second bird, which is actually itself at a deeper inner level. When the first bird’s mind is synchronized with the second bird, the activities become much more gracious. There is a sense of a unity, a oneness. In that harmony, the work may still happen but without obsession, without fear, without the sense of needing to control things. It is simply happening because life compels this activity to happen. It is as though another power is helping the actions to take place.
The second bird represents the change of perspective from the mode of the person to the state of presence. When we are involved in the activities of life so deeply that it seems that the daily routine is all there is, then we are like this first bird, the nest builder, oblivious to our second bird position.
Come to the second bird position, to the one who is observing, and you will discover that the one who is busy building a life will slowly become more transparent, leaving only the functioning itself. The activities are happening anyway, beautifully, but the sense of doer-ship—which is the ego sense—will fade away. Activities are just happening; our self-image as a person is just happening, but our true Self is not a happening.
In fact, the TRUE SELF is a third position, which is not a bird, but the space within which both birds are arising and seen.
From my understanding, Mooji’s concept of the third position relates directly to what don Miguel Ruiz calls the dream of the third attention.
“In the dream of the third attention, we are not putting our attention on life. We are life. We become aware that we are life - not just as a concept, but as an action, as complete awareness. Now we can see with the eyes of truth, and this is a completely different point of view. “
- don Miguel Ruiz, “The Fifth Agreement”
You will recall that in the Toltec tradition, there are three masteries and each one relates to our level of attention.
In the first mastery, the mastery of awareness, we become aware of how our attention was first drawn to the symbols, rules and beliefs of society and how we have believed the voice in our mind that tells us who we are and how we need to be. This level of attention is akin to the position of the first bird in the parable.
In the second mastery, the mastery of transformation, our attention shifts for the second time to the observer of the thoughts in our mind, we become aware that we are not the voice in our head and, with this awareness , we gradually transform our beliefs and our lives - we become the second bird.
In the third mastery, the mastery of love, our attention is drawn for the third time to the infinite and immortal life force that creates everything and we easily see the same force of life that is behind each one of us. Now we are able to take the third position - which is not a bird at all but, as Mooji says, is the space in which all arises and is seen.
A wonderful video of Mooji explaining the Two Bird parable …and beyond!
xoxo
“Beyond the two birds is one that has no form, it has no species, it was never born, it cannot die. It's not going somewhere, it's not coming from anywhere. Are we aware of this?”
A video extract from the Satsang DVD 'In God's House There Cannot Be Two' London Intensive 10th Nov, 2014.
