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.
शौचात्स्वाङ्गजुगुप्सा परैरसंसर्गः
śaucāt svāṅga-jugupsā parair asaṁsargaḥ
From cleanliness comes a detachment from one's own body and less compulsion to contact with others.
Yoga Sutras 2.40 · verse 91 of 196
Unfolding the thread
This verse is easily misread as disgust with the body. Its point is gentler: when you care for cleanliness, you notice how much maintenance a body needs, and your over-identification with it loosens. You become less driven by physical contact, more at ease in yourself.
Try today
As you wash today, do it slowly, and notice both care for the body and a little freedom from it.
The Echo
The same truth, heard in another tradition
“I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers.”
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