Tantric technique: Stilling the Mind

Watching the Breath

This very simple technique is a perfect place to begin. You can quickly learn to be the Witness by sitting quietly and focusing on your breathing process. Observe the breath as it enters and leaves your body. Make no attempt to modify it. Have no opinion about how it should be. Give your full attention to watching the breath for several minutes.

Breath Mantra

As you observe the breath, you can also hear its cosmic sound. As you inhale, hear the sound “hong.” As you exhale, hear the sound “sah.” Hearing “Hong Sah” will still the mind and bring you into present time. Breath stops and enlightenment happens. Do Breath Mantra only during meditation. It takes you out of body.

Khechari Mudra

Holding the tongue tip to the roof of the mouth quiets the mind, among other benefits. Whenever the mind is chattering, you are saying all those words to yourself. If the tongue is immobilized so you can’t “talk,” the mind shuts down automatically.

Witness Your Thoughts

Witness your thoughts as if you were listening to an internal radio. Begin to detach from your thoughts and to see yourself as separate from them. Notice that if you are observing your thoughts, it means you can not be your thoughts, since you are the Consciousness that is watching them. Notice how the “volume” of your thoughts automatically goes down. Sometimes it turns off completely. How does it feel to sit in the silence?