yogatime

First Light

How First Light works

Every morning at your sunrise: one line of ancient wisdom, what it means, unfolded, and how thinkers in other traditions said the same thing. It takes a few quiet minutes, and there's nothing to sign up for.

Read today's First Light

Your morning

The top of the page is set to your city. Sunrise is calculated for where you are. The quiet hour is the traditional window for practice before dawn, called Brahma Muhurta in Sanskrit: it runs from 96 to 48 minutes before sunrise, when the world is still and the mind is fresh.

We also show the moon. On new and full moon days ("moon days"), many Ashtanga practitioners traditionally rest. And the season, the right way round for your hemisphere.

Today's line

Each day brings the next verse of a classic text, in order, so everyone reads the same verse on the same day, wherever they are. You get the original, a transliteration, our own plain-English rendering, a short explanation, and one small thing to try that day.

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

196 short verses, compiled by Patanjali roughly two thousand years ago, that map how the mind moves and how it comes to rest. The foundation text of classical yoga.

196 verses, one a day

Coming later: the Bhagavad Gita, the Dhammapada and the Tao Te Ching.

The Echo

An Echo is a line from another tradition that says the same thing as today's verse, in its own words. It shows that a teaching from ancient India was also found in Rome, Persia, China and medieval Europe, often centuries apart. For some readers it's a bridge into the Sutras; for others, a reminder of how deep their own tradition runs.

Yoga Sutras 1.1
“Now begins the teaching of yoga.”

“Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me.”
Henry David Thoreau, Walden, Where I Lived, and What I Lived For (1854)

“This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
The Psalms, King James Bible, Psalm 118:24 (1611)

My Circle

Under The Echo, My Circle lets you choose whose voices you hear: whole traditions, or individual thinkers. The verse stays the same for everyone; only the echoes change. If nobody in your circle echoes a particular verse, we show one from outside it. Your choice is saved on your device.

A tradition is offered in My Circle once it echoes enough verses to be worth choosing, so it never leaves you with nothing.

Traditions and voices

Every tradition and thinker you'll meet in The Echo so far, and how often they appear.

Buddhist

  • The Dhammapada · c. 3rd century BCE: Early collection of the Buddha's sayings in verse · 50 echoes

Taoist

  • Laozi · c. 6th–4th century BCE: Traditional author of the Tao Te Ching · 44 echoes
  • Zhuangzi (Chuang Tzu) · c. 369–286 BCE: Taoist sage and storyteller of paradox · 9 echoes

Sufi

  • Hafiz · c. 1315–1390: Persian poet of Shiraz, master of the mystical love lyric · 17 echoes
  • Rumi · 1207–1273: Persian poet and mystic whose Mesnevi sings of the soul's longing for God · 40 echoes

Bhakti

  • Kabir · c. 1440–1518: Weaver-poet of Benares, loved by Hindus and Muslims alike · 49 echoes

Stoic

  • Epictetus · c. 50–135 CE: Former slave who became one of the great Stoic teachers · 13 echoes
  • Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE: Roman emperor who wrote private notes to himself on living well · 36 echoes

Judeo-Christian

  • Ecclesiastes · c. 450–200 BCE: The Hebrew Bible's book of the Preacher, on what lasts · 8 echoes
  • Isaiah · 8th century BCE: Hebrew prophet of comfort and renewal · 3 echoes
  • The Book of Job · c. 6th–4th century BCE: The Hebrew Bible's great poem on suffering and trust · 1 echo
  • The Gospels · 1st century CE: The four accounts of the life and teaching of Jesus · 17 echoes
  • The Hebrew Bible · c. 1200–100 BCE: The histories and prophets of ancient Israel · 1 echo
  • The New Testament letters · 1st century CE: Early Christian letters to the first communities · 21 echoes
  • The Proverbs · c. 900–300 BCE: The Hebrew Bible's collection of practical wisdom · 5 echoes
  • The Psalms · c. 1000–300 BCE: Hebrew songs of prayer and praise · 20 echoes

Christian mystic

  • Augustine of Hippo · 354–430: North African bishop whose Confessions is the first great inner autobiography · 13 echoes
  • Brother Lawrence · c. 1614–1691: French monastery cook who practised God's presence among the pots and pans · 7 echoes
  • Julian of Norwich · 1343–c. 1416: English anchoress, the first woman known to write a book in English · 6 echoes
  • Thomas à Kempis · c. 1380–1471: German-Dutch monk, author of The Imitation of Christ · 23 echoes

Transcendentalist

  • Henry David Thoreau · 1817–1862: American writer who lived two years by Walden Pond · 18 echoes
  • Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1803–1882: American essayist and poet, voice of self-reliance · 31 echoes

Renaissancegrowing: not in My Circle yet

  • William Shakespeare · 1564–1616: English playwright and poet · 5 echoes

Rationalistgrowing: not in My Circle yet

  • René Descartes · 1596–1650: French philosopher who resolved to doubt everything he could · 2 echoes

Classical Greekgrowing: not in My Circle yet

  • Aristotle · 384–322 BCE: Greek philosopher who asked what makes a life go well · 2 echoes

Where the words come from

The verse renderings are our own, made from the original Sanskrit. Every Echo is quoted exactly, checked word for word against a public-domain edition, and linked to its source so you can read it in context. We never use quotes from quote websites, where misattributions are common.

Sunrise and moon times are calculated for your city. City data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).