try watching a sunrise

This might be a bit more of a challenge than watching a sunset. To begin with, we need to be awake before the sunrise. It is great to find a place from where we can watch the sun rising over a distant horizon. And to be there half an hour or more before the sunrise – to watch the sky becoming light, the colours streaking across the horizon; and then that first intense spot of sunlight as the sun begins to show itself once more.

At this time of day, when the day is just beginning, there is a spaciousness. There is an emptiness, full of potential; and a curiosity: what will the day bring? The page has not yet been written. Yet it is coming.

So this is a beautiful time of day, a beautiful time to meditate; when the mind is not yet busy; when the day has not yet happened. We can touch that great space of potential. It is felt in the outer world, as the day yet to come. And it is felt on the inside too. It is our very essence: that infinite space of silence and stillness, which contains the potential for everything and anything. And watching a sunrise we can feel this potential – the dawn of a new day; the excitement of the unknown; that curiosity calling to us, to explore, to open to the day, to receive the gifts that the day will bring, without knowing what they will be.

All of this can be felt when we watch a sunrise. So try it: try arising early one morning and watching a sunrise.