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.
स्मृतिपरिशुद्धौ स्वरूपशून्येवार्थमात्रनिर्भासा निर्वितर्का
smṛti-pariśuddhau svarūpa-śūnyevārtha-mātra-nirbhāsā nirvitarkā
When memory is purified and the mind seems empty of itself, only the object shines. This is absorption beyond reasoning.
Yoga Sutras 1.43 · verse 43 of 196
Unfolding the thread
Then the words drop away. Memory stops supplying labels, the sense of "me looking" fades, and only the object remains, shining by itself. People sometimes glimpse this in nature or music, when they forget themselves completely for a moment.
Try today
Next time something beautiful catches you, don't reach for a word or a photo. Let it simply shine for a few breaths.
The Echo
The same truth, heard in another tradition
“The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory.”
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