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.
वितर्कविचारानन्दास्मितारूपानुगमात्सम्प्रज्ञातः
vitarka-vicārānandāsmitā-rūpānugamāt saṁprajñātaḥ
Absorption with an object moves through stages: reasoning, reflection, joy, and the bare sense of "I am."
Yoga Sutras 1.17 · verse 17 of 196
Unfolding the thread
Samādhi, deep absorption, isn't one state but a staircase. First the mind rests on something through thinking about it (vitarka), then through subtler reflection (vicāra), then in plain joy (ānanda), and finally in the bare feeling of being (asmitā). Each step is quieter than the one before.
Try today
Rest your attention on your breath. Notice thinking about it, then simply feeling it, then the ease of it, then just being here.
The Echo
The same truth, heard in another tradition
“I think, therefore I am”
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