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.
विषयवती वा प्रवृत्तिरुत्पन्ना मनसः स्थितिनिबन्धिनी
viṣayavatī vā pravṛttir utpannā manasaḥ sthiti-nibandhinī
Or steadiness comes when the mind is absorbed in a subtle sense experience.
Yoga Sutras 1.35 · verse 35 of 196
Unfolding the thread
Sometimes the easiest way in is through the senses. The commentators describe fine perceptions that arise in meditation: a subtle taste, a scent, a sound. More simply, when you give your full attention to one sensation, such as the taste of tea or birdsong at dawn, the mind has somewhere to rest.
Try today
Drink your first cup today with complete attention: its warmth, its taste, its smell. Nothing else for those few sips.
The Echo
The same truth, heard in another tradition
“To the attentive eye, each moment of the year has its own beauty, and in the same field, it beholds, every hour, a picture which was never seen before, and which shall never be seen again.”
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