Early Morning Practice: An invitation into the quiet

I wanted to share something quite personal: a glimpse into my own early-morning practice.

This is not meant as a teaching about practice so much as an invitation into the practice itself. The atmosphere is difficult to capture on video—the darkness, the quiet, the lighting of the lamp, the incense, and that gradual movement from the activity of the mind toward stillness and presence.

Sit in front of your own altar or look out a window seated in a comfortable chair.

For me, the altar is a kind of external portal. The real portal is within—behind the eyelids, within the heart, deep within the belly. But when the mind is filled with thoughts and the body with feelings, a simple ritual can help turn us toward something beyond ourselves.  

            The heart of this practice is the Core Mantra.

I return to it during the night, in the early morning, and throughout the day—not simply to repeat a mantra, but to interrupt the relentless movement of thought, create space within myself, and return to presence.

Seek the silence. Cultivate the stillness.

And yet silence and stillness are not the destination. They prepare us for something deeper: the opening of the heart and an awareness of Spirit—of a presence beyond the self we ordinarily know ourselves to be.  

           This is why I practice.