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.
विरामप्रत्ययाभ्यासपूर्वः संस्कारशेषोऽन्यः
virāma-pratyayābhyāsa-pūrvaḥ saṁskāra-śeṣo 'nyaḥ
The other absorption comes from practising the stopping of thought; only latent impressions remain.
Yoga Sutras 1.18 · verse 18 of 196
Unfolding the thread
Beyond absorption with an object lies one without: asaṁprajñāta, where even the sense of "I am" falls quiet. It's reached by letting thoughts come to rest, again and again, until only the seeds of past impressions (saṁskāras) remain. It isn't blankness, like sleep. It's awareness with nothing in the way.
Try today
Between one breath and the next, notice the small pause where nothing is happening. Rest there for as long as it lasts.
The Echo
The same truth, heard in another tradition
“He who devotes himself to learning (seeks) from day to day to increase (his knowledge); he who devotes himself to the Tao (seeks) from day to day to diminish (his doing).”
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