The Buddha encouraged us to meditate in the forest in the early morning. We are still (mostly) Earthbound creatures, folded into the rhythms of the Earth. But how often do you experience the sunrise, as a creature of the Earth, with nothing else to do but feel the air and breathe in the scent and sounds in the expanding light? Our tradition has always included very early morning zazen and yet, in our usual busyness, many don’t have the luxury of a long early morning sit, unpressured by waiting duties.
A full hour of zazen, which we’ve been calling a “Golden Hour,” is a dip into retreat mode — a taste of the infinite. It takes practice to be able to relax into awareness so completely and inclusively that it truly is experienced as a “golden hour.”
Of course, zazen is just whatever it is each moment. So, it is vital to sit with no preconceptions about what these first moments “should” be. During sunrise meditation, we simply “be” with whatever arises in— or outside of us, altogether, appreciating the emerging moment arising — one complete experience.
Mushin