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.
समाधिभावनार्थः क्लेशतनूकरणार्थश्च
samādhi-bhāvanārthaḥ kleśa-tanū-karaṇārthaś ca
Its purpose is to cultivate absorption and to wear down the causes of suffering.
Yoga Sutras 2.2 · verse 53 of 196
Unfolding the thread
Why practise? Two reasons, and the second is the humbler one. Yes, to move toward deep absorption. But first, to thin out the kleśas, the root causes of suffering, the way water slowly wears down stone. You don't have to defeat them in a day. Making them a little weaker is already the practice working.
Try today
Notice one reaction that usually grips you. Today, aim only to make it a little weaker, not to make it disappear.
The Echo
The same truth, heard in another tradition
“Let a wise man blow off the impurities of his self, as a smith blows off the impurities of silver one by one, little by little, and from time to time.”
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