Your Bedtime Story And Relaxation: 6. Two Birds

Namaste!

This story comes to us straight from Mandukya Upanishad.

There once were two birds of golden plumage sat on the same tree.

The one sat on topmost branch,

Serene,

Majestic,

Immersed in his own glory.

The one sat on lower branches,

Restless,

And eating the fruits of the tree,

Sometimes sweet,

Sometimes bitter.

Once he ate an exceptionally bitter fruit,

Then he paused and looked up at the majestic bird on topmost branch.

But soon he forgot about the other bird and went back eating the fruits of the tree as before.

Again he ate a bitter fruit,

And this time he hopped up a few branches near to the bird at the top.

This happened many times until at last the lower bird came to the place of the upper bird and lost himself.

He found all at once that there had never been two birds,

But that he was all the time that upper bird,

Serene,

Majestic,

And immersed in his own glory.

In this story,

Tree is tree of life.

It can be taken as either this body of the individual or it may be the entire creation itself.

Universal consciousness and individual consciousness are present in the world of creation as well as in the human body.

Both of them live on a single tree and they enjoy their existence there.

The only difference is,

One of these birds is busy experiencing sweet bitter fruit of the tree of life and the other bird is not interested in eating anything.

It is unattached to tree,

Serene and immersed in his own glory.

This unattached bird is universal consciousness,

Seated in your own heart and everywhere in this world.

The bird that is eating the sweet bitter fruit is the individual consciousness,

The mind-body complex.

So there are two phases of experiences going on in one's own body,

A consciousness that is totally detached and a consciousness that is very much involved.

The detached consciousness in us is called Katoosha Chaitanya.

It stands uncontaminated even in the state of deep sleep and enables us to regain our consciousness of the identity of personality when we awake the next morning and feel that we are there.

This consciousness of our being the same person that we were yesterday is not the action of mind,

Not of the sense organs,

Not the body.

The body cannot know anything,

It is unconscious matter and the mind and senses were not functioning in sleep.

So who told us that we existed yesterday?

There is some minimal awareness,

The consciousness KUA being which is our essence that existed in deep sleep and that is responsible for our remembrance of our having existed yesterday also.

That is the pure detached awareness in us.

It is not connected with body,

Mind and sense organs.

That is universal consciousness that is in us.

The individual consciousness is our own self,

The very awareness of the body,

Mind and sense organs.

The individual,

He or she.

The pure consciousness which is beyond body and mind is universal consciousness itself because the awareness we experience in the deep sleep where there are no body,

No senses or mind is universal in its nature.

Because consciousness cannot be located only in one place,

Cannot be divided into parts,

Cannot have fractions,

It is therefore universal.

Hence universal consciousness is inside us.

In the deep sleep state we land ourselves on it and feel the bliss of it.

So intense is the joy of sleep that we want to go to sleep again and again.

But when we wake up,

We are once again the individual consciousness,

The fruit eating bird in this world tree of samsara and not even conscious that there is another bird sitting there always.

Unattached.

Most of the time we are not aware of this universal consciousness in us.

We always think we are Mr.

Or Miss so and so,

This body,

That body,

This individual,

That individual performing this work or that work.

We don't have time to see that there is a universal ocean as the pieces of our consciousness.

We are floating on the sea of absolute bliss.

Yet we don't experience it because we are focused on the fruits of life.

We are very busy indeed.

Let the universal be there,

What does it matter to me?

So says the bird that is eating the sweet and bitter fruits.

It does not even know that another bird is its true identity.

It's sitting here as it's so much engrossed in the indulgence of the joy,

Pleasure and pain of eating the fruit.

For now,

Let's prepare to sleep.

Find a comfortable lying down position,

Lying flat on the bed.

With your head on the pillow,

Body relaxed,

Knees may be slightly bent.

You can keep a small pillow under the back of your knees.

Now gently close your eyes and start taking a few nice big deep breaths.

Breathing in and out through the nostrils only.

If you find it comforting,

You can just gently place your hand on your stomach as you breathe in and out.

Just to feel that movement along with the breath in the body.

Let go of the deep breaths now.

And as you lie there,

Just notice how the body feels.

Does it feel heavy or light?

Restless or still?

Does it feel as though the body is ready to sleep?

Or there is still a little bit of winding down for it to do?

Either way,

We are just going to go through this practice.

Just slowly pointing the body and the mind in the direction of deep relaxation.

Now,

We are going to relive the day.

In this,

Mentally you will go through the events of the day which you have lived from the time you woke up in the morning till the present moment coming to bed.

Begin by thinking about the time when you woke up today in the morning.

Just like a movie,

See yourself waking up in the morning.

Try to remember what was your first action,

First thought.

And then afterwards,

What did you do?

Relive every moment.

Did you speak to someone?

What did you speak about?

How was the interaction?

And how did it make you feel?

See everything.

Remember everything.

Till breakfast.

Relive every moment.

Then you had your breakfast.

What did you do?

What did you eat in your breakfast?

Then what did you do next?

See that.

Any activity,

Any work,

Anything that you might have done in sequence till lunch time.

See the whole thing.

As though you are watching a video fast-forwarding.

Relive moments till lunch time.

Then you had your lunch.

What did you have for lunch?

What did you eat?

What did you do after lunch?

And then what did you do after lunch?

How was your mood?

Relive those moments.

Till dinner time.

Then dinner.

And after dinner.

How you spent the time till now?

Slowly coming back to the present moment.

As you see yourself getting ready for bed.

Getting into bed and starting with this program.

Take one deep breath in.

And as you exhale,

Begin to feel the body.

Just sinking into the bed.

Now,

We begin body scan.

I will name a body part.

You just become aware of that body part.

Feel it.

And then just move to the next body part which is named.

Become aware of the right hand.

Become aware of the right hand.

Right hand thumb.

Fingers of right hand.

Whole right hand.

Whole right arm.

Right shoulder.

Right side of the chest.

Waist.

Hip.

Whole right leg.

Right foot.

The toes.

Now left hand.

Left hand thumb.

Fingers of the left hand.

Whole left hand.

Whole left arm.

Left shoulder.

Left side of the chest.

Waist.

Hip.

Whole left leg.

The left foot.

The toes.

Feel the both legs together.

The buttocks.

Stomach.

Chest.

Back.

Shoulder blades.

Arms.

The neck.

The head.

Forehead.

Eyes.

Nose.

Right cheek.

Left cheek.

Mouth.

Lips.

Chin.

The whole face.

The whole head.

The whole neck.

The whole back.

The whole body.

The whole body.

The whole body.

Again we will go through the whole body.

This time a little more slower and in detail.

Starting with the right hand thumb.

First finger.

Second finger.

Third finger.

Little finger.

Fingers and thumb together.

Palm of the hand.

Back of the hand.

Wrist.

Forearm.

Elbow.

Upper part of the right arm.

Right shoulder.

Right armpit.

Right side of the torso.

Right side waist.

Hip.

Right thigh.

Knee cap.

Calf muscle.

Ankle.

Heel.

Sole of the foot.

Big toe.

Second toe.

Third.

Left heel.

Third.

Fourth.

Fifth.

The whole right side of the body.

From toes to the fingers.

Fingers to the toes.

The whole right side of the body.

Now go to the left hand.

Become aware of the left hand thumb.

First finger of left hand.

Second finger.

Third finger.

Little finger.

Fingers and thumb together.

Palm of the hand.

Back side of the body.

Palm of the hand.

Back side of the hand.

Wrist.

Forearm.

Elbow.

Upper part of the arm.

Left shoulder.

Left armpit.

Left side of the torso.

Left side waist.

Hip.

Thigh.

Knee cap.

Calf muscle.

Ankle.

Left foot heel.

Sole of the foot.

Big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Fifth.

Whole left foot.

The whole left side of the body.

From toes to the fingers.

Fingers to the toes.

The whole left side of the body.

Now to the back.

Become aware of the lower back.

The right buttock.

And the left buttock.

Middle back.

Upper back.

Right side of the body.

Right shoulder blade.

Left shoulder blade.

Back of the neck.

Back of the head.

The whole back side together.

Now go to the top of the head.

The crown of the head.

Forehead.

Both sides of the head.

Right eyebrow.

Left eyebrow.

The space between two eyebrows.

Right eyelid.

Left eyelid.

Right eye.

Left eye.

Left eye.

Right ear.

Left ear.

Right side cheek.

Left side cheek.

Bridge of the nostrils.

Right nostril.

Left nostril.

Upper lip.

Upper jaw.

Tongue.

Lower jaw.

Lower lip.

Chin.

Throat.

Right collarbone.

Left collarbone.

Chest.

Right part of the chest.

Middle part of the chest.

Left part of the chest.

Upper part of the belly.

Middle part of the belly.

The navel area.

Lower part of the belly.

The navel area.

Lower part of the belly.

The whole of the right leg.

The whole of the left leg.

Both legs together.

The whole of the right arm.

The whole of the left arm.

Both arms together.

The whole of the back.

Buttocks.

Spine.

Shoulder blades.

The whole of the front.

Abdomen.

Chest.

The whole of the back and front together.

The whole of the head.

The whole body.

The whole body.

The whole body.

The whole body.

The whole body.

The whole body.

Become aware of your breath now.

Just feel the flow of your breath.

In and out through the body.

Gently become aware of the belly and its movement along with the breath.

Notice as the breath comes in,

Belly expands slightly.

And as the breath goes out,

It contracts slightly.

Continue to observe the movement of your belly along with your breath.

Now,

Keeping the awareness on the breath,

Start mentally counting down your breath from 54.

As the breath comes in,

Count 54.

As it flows out,

54.

Breathe in 53.

Breathe out 53.

Like this,

Continue.

Not trying to fall asleep.

Just counting down the breath.

And knowing that,

It really doesn't matter too much when the sleep comes.

As you lie there in this way,

Both the body and the mind are getting all the rest that they need.

If you lose track of the countdown,

Come back to 54 and start over.