Antar Mouna is a meditation technique used to cultivate inner silence. In Sanskrit Antar means inner and Mouna means silence. This powerful technique helps to learn about yourself, your hidden reality and the depths of inner mind. By this technique of meditation make able to cultivate thoughts in beneficial way and remove the conditioning mind. Antar Mouna helps in purify the negative thoughts by first becoming aware of them, knowing them and then letting go. Normally people suppress negative thoughts but those are suppressed and stored in sub consciousness mind. They harm us in to bring positive feelings and clarity of thoughts.
Technique of Antar Mouna
- Sit in a comfortable meditative pose like lotus or thunderbolt pose.
- You may also lie down if you need.
- Take few breaths and notice the present moment without any judgement.
- Observe the body with awareness slowly moving from your feet to your arms, abdomen and face.
- Take your time to observe and feel sensation.
- Keep notice to the surroundings and the sounds while still keeping your eyes closed.
- Don’t get attached with sounds or just try to understand them. It may be sounds coming
from your body like the sound of your breathing.
Stage of Antar Mouna:
Stage One: Awareness of external sensory perceptions
This is the first stage where we gather awareness of our external sensory organs by listening, feeling and smelling the things or environment around us. Notice the sensations arising or present in your body but don’t get involved. Observe the air flowing in and out of your nostrils in a rhythmic pattern. If you can keep your attention at the tip of your nose. Observe your thoughts but let them come and go and don’t get attached to them.
Stage Two: Awareness of the spontaneous thought process
This is the second stage where we gather awareness of our thought process and try to silence the mind. Seeing the coming and going of thoughts makes you connect to the inner witness. Your attitude is that you are not your thoughts; you are not that which you observe. You are the observer or even the observation. Being conscious of where your attention goes is what scientists call meta-awareness, awareness of awareness.
Stage Three: Creation and disposal of thoughts
In the third stage we create and dispose thoughts by focusing on a particular thought intentionally and observing it silently. With time we can let go of the difficult or negative thoughts that we keep holding onto and let our mind be silent.
Stage Four: Stopping spontaneous thoughts
In the fourth stage of Antar Mouna, we practice the refinement of stage three by creating awareness towards the thought coming from the deeper parts of our mind. Observe the thoughts and repeat the process of creating and disposing these thoughts. By this point the mind becomes more refined and clear.
Stage Five: Thoughtlessness
we can move forward to the fifth stage which is of thoughtlessness. This is where the mind is blank, but awareness is still maintained. This is where Antar Mouna is achieved. This stage comes naturally after perfecting the previous stages with enough practice.
Stage Six: Awareness of Psychic Symbols
When the mind is purified and no unnecessary thoughts arise, spontaneous symbols may arise, or they may not. This symbol surfacing is due to optimal prana flow, the vital energy of life. If we see a symbol in our mind as we are working with stage four, then we can transition to letting the psychic symbol be the focal point of the mind during meditation. The intuitive symbol will show itself time and time again. This stage is not guaranteed to happen, nor is it essential. We all have varied abilities and natural inclinations in how we engage our sense organs. When we turn our senses inward, some of us may “see” with our mind’s eye, with tendencies towards visualization, whereas others may be more apt to “hear” inside, etc. The main focus of stage six is to observe what happens when the flow of thoughts slows and then cease.
Benefits of Antar Mouna
- You achieve emptiness or nothingness which is important to release patterns of
thoughts. - You experience peace.
- Antar Mouna helps you connect with your awareness.
- Makes you more mindful
- Helps with manifesting your thoughts
- Heightened sensory perception
- Your mind has more space to welcome newer and refreshing ideas
- It increases concentration and cognitive control
- Develop a stronger willpower to refrain from unnecessary thinking