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Enlightenment Journal | Winter 2012-2013

A small altar in the living room is my morning destination upon arising. 

I light a votive candle, chant my morning prayers aloud, and offer a lighted 

stick of incense. Offering my morning prayers and tending this altar in 

its central place in our home gives me a sense of blessing the day ahead, 

everyone I will meet, and everything I will encounter. It also uplifts our 

living space. Our home shares that blessing every day and whenever I pass 

that altar, I am gently reminded of the prayer. 

While there are many different types of prayers, a prayer of attunement 

is useful for starting the day—one that lifts our awareness into the spiritual 

reality of our being and supports our direct experience of it. The following 

is an English version of an exquisite morning prayer written by the sage, 

Adi Shankara:

At dawn, I remember and meditate on that which shines in the 
heart as the Self—the Truth of my being which is eternal existence, 
pure consciousness, and bliss. I contemplate that which is the goal 
of life, the transcendent reality. I remember my own nature as one 

with the One that makes all the states of consciousness—dreaming, 
waking, and sleeping—possible. I transcend them all. 

At dawn, my heart sings the praises of that which is beyond words 
and thoughts, the One by whose divine grace all words may be 

spoken. That One which is “not this, not this” is always without 
change. 

At dawn, I bow to that divine light, the eternal being, the God 
divine, the light of the world that dispels the darkness of ignorance 
and fear and shows that the serpent is only a rope.
One who offers this auspicious prayer at dawn becomes fit for 
liberation of consciousness, the ultimate freedom. 

This is a beautiful prayer to contemplate. There are many prayers of 

attunement that can be used, even the simple prayers that arise from your 

own heart and mind in the moment. The best prayer to offer is the one 

that is most inspiring to you, the one that uplifts you and supports you  

in consciously setting a positive intention to carry peace throughout your 

day. 

 

Ellen Grace O'Brian is the Spiritual Director of CSE.

Winter Holy Days