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.
अनित्याशुचिदुःखानात्मसु नित्यशुचिसुखात्मख्यातिरविद्या
anityāśuci-duḥkhānātmasu nitya-śuci-sukhātma-khyātir avidyā
Ignorance is taking the passing for the lasting, the impure for the pure, pain for pleasure, and what is not the Self for the Self.
Yoga Sutras 2.5 · verse 56 of 196
Unfolding the thread
Four ways we get things backwards. We treat what's temporary as if it will last. We see what is mixed as if it were pure. We chase what will bring pain as if it will bring joy. And we take the body, the mind or our roles to be who we really are. None of this is stupidity; it's the way minds work until they're trained to see more clearly.
Try today
Pick one thing you're treating as permanent (a job, a mood, a worry) and remind yourself, gently, that it will pass.
The Echo
The same truth, heard in another tradition
“`All created things perish,' he who knows and sees this becomes passive in pain; this is the way to purity.”
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