Antar Mouna – meeting with the stillness in you
Antar Mouna literally means inner silence. Your surroundings may be very noisy, less noisy or even quite calm. But even when there is complete silence in your outer world the inner chatter still goes on and on and on… Antar Mouna provides a very soft approach to meditation. Some meditation techniques require a certain amount of willpower to focus on a selected object. It could be an image (like in Tratak), it could be a sound (like in Mantra Meditation). After a sufficient and proper application of concentration on the selected object, the mind passes on to a deeper and more effortless state: the state of meditation. Antar Mouna, however, begins with allowing your consciousness to gently expand. Instead of focussing on a specific object, you simply try to become aware of whatever is there. You don’t need to sit in a meditation pose (although you could), and you don’t necessarily require a peaceful environment.
The first stage
In the first stage of Antar Mouna, you allow yourself to experience all the sounds around us. And you try to experience them without interfering with your judgement, you just want to experience them as they are. you are taking the position of a neutral witness. In the beginning you need a few guided meditation sessions. After a while you can practice on your own. We are posting a some recordings below that guide you through your first sessions.
The second stage
Taking the attitude of a neutral witness to the second stage, you now turn to your inner world, experiencing the contents of your mind. Without judgement, without identification, just watching what is going on inside. As long as you are identifying with your mind you are conditioned by it. But when you are able to watch it from a neutral perspective you are free. This requires a bit of practice! But it will be such a big step in your life! A revolution of your consciousness! Your life may take a completely new direction! Learning to see and accept your thoughts for what they are allows you to understand thought patterns and attachments. Just experience them as a neutral witness. You don’t need to follow your thoughts, diving deeper and deeper and getting lost in them, because you don’t identify with them. You are now able separate the useful thoughts and emotions from garbage. You are free.
6 stages of Antar Mouna
In total, Antar Mouna consists of 6 stages, which ultimately lead to a state of inner silence and deep meditation. The central technique of Antar Mouna is the witness attitude, which allows us to expand our awareness, experience things as they are, and come closer to the real essence of our being. After practicing the witness attitude sufficiently in Antar Mouna, it becomes a natural state of awareness in our daily life. The witness attitude is a key technique in many other meditation methods, but in my experience Antar Mouna is especially powerful and also practical.
Let’s begin!
Start practicing the first stage of Antar Mouna for a few weeks until listening to the sounds around you becomes natural and easy. You can practice this meditation anywhere (on a meditation cushion, on a chair, on the sofa, on a bench in a park, in the garden, in the train or bus, etc.), at any time, provided you can safely close your eyes for a while and sit still. After sufficient practice of stage one you can add the second stage. Sufficient practice could mean a few weeks, but you may want to continue for month and years or your whole life. Even after adding the second stage, you can go back to practicing the first stage, because it is a a technique which is complete in itself. Maintaining awareness while watching the contents of your mind requires patience and consistent effort, but it is a great tool for the evolution of your personality. We are posting guided meditation practices for stage 1 and stage 1+2 below.
Going deeper
After practicing the first two stages for a long time you may want to go even deeper. Please write us when you are ready to go beyond the first two stages, and we’ll provide you guidance (it’s free!!).