First Light
How First Light worksTuesday 27 October·
- Sunrise
- 07:55
- Quiet hour
- 06:19–07:07
- Brahma Muhurta
- Moon
- Waning gibbous
- Next full moon: Tue 24 Nov
Autumn
The quiet hour (Brahma Muhurta) is the traditional time for practice, just before sunrise.
तत्परं पुरुषख्यातेर्गुणवैतृष्ण्यम्
tat paraṁ puruṣa-khyāter guṇa-vaitṛṣṇyam
Its highest form, born of knowing the true Self, is freedom from craving for anything the world is made of.
Yoga Sutras 1.16 · verse 16 of 196
Unfolding the thread
There is a deeper letting go, and it doesn't come from willpower at all. When you glimpse who you really are (puruṣa, the one who sees), the pull of the world's qualities (the guṇas: restlessness, heaviness, even pleasant clarity) simply loses its hold. Not because the world is bad, but because you've stopped looking to it for yourself.
Try today
When something pleases you today, enjoy it fully. Then notice that you, the one enjoying, were here before it and are still here after.
The Echo
The same truth, heard in another tradition
“For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”
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