Nostril concentration risks?

The cultivation of calm or tranquility and the development of concentration
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Zimesky
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Nostril concentration risks?

Post by Zimesky »

I've heard that there may be consequences from concentrating on the tip of the nose. One being an increase in blood-pressure in the head, leading to other more serious issues that may arise. Does anyone know if there is truth to this? If so, any remedies one can use?
Spiny Norman
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Re: Nostril concentration risks?

Post by Spiny Norman »

Zimesky wrote:I've heard that there may be consequences from concentrating on the tip of the nose. One being an increase in blood-pressure in the head, leading to other more serious issues that may arise.
I've never heard of this, but it suggests wrong technique to me.
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marc108
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Re: Nostril concentration risks?

Post by marc108 »

unlikely, or most Theravada meditators would have high blood pressure... Samadhi generally reduces blood pressure.
"It's easy for us to connect with what's wrong with us... and not so easy to feel into, or to allow us, to connect with what's right and what's good in us."
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fivebells
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Re: Nostril concentration risks?

Post by fivebells »

Zimesky, are you experiencing any difficulties similar to what you're asking about?
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Ben
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Re: Nostril concentration risks?

Post by Ben »

Zimesky wrote:I've heard that there may be consequences from concentrating on the tip of the nose. One being an increase in blood-pressure in the head, leading to other more serious issues that may arise. Does anyone know if there is truth to this? If so, any remedies one can use?
After nearly thirty years of practice, that is the first I have heard of that one.
I don't know where it came from but I would be interested in knowing whether there is any hard evidence to support it.
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

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Bakmoon
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Re: Nostril concentration risks?

Post by Bakmoon »

I've heard from some sources that this can trigger headaches in some people but that's about it.
The non-doing of any evil,
The performance of what's skillful,
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This is the Buddhas' teaching.
Zimesky
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Re: Nostril concentration risks?

Post by Zimesky »

OK, I found the book that I had initially heard this from. It's a book called "Working Towards Enlightenment" written by Master Nan Huai-Chin. This book was among the first of the materials that really got me into meditation, and later on, more interest in Buddhism it'self. For the longest time his books have been my measuring stick for how I approach this kind of material. The part of the book I'm talking about is Master Nan describing parts of a sutra. Anyway, too the quote!

Page 124, 2nd, 3rd and 3th paragraphs.

" "There are no other thoughts." At this time, there must be no thoughts at all in the mind: this is the principle of correcting the mind. "Tie your consciousness to your nose" Take your consciousness and focus it on your nose. This sentence has killed many students of Taoism and Buddhism. Is this some sort of "guarding the apertures?" "The eyes observe the nose, the nose observes the mind" -is that so? You can be so concerned with this that you raise your blood pressure Are you imitating the white crane? The white crane can live more than a thousand years. The story goes that this is because when the white crane stops and rests, his nose faces his anus, and the two breaths circulate together. But our necks are so much shorter than the white cranes, so how can we imitate it? Thus Buddha says: "The stupidity of sentient beings is truly pitiful."
The phrase "tie your consciousness to your nose" is not telling you to observe your nose. Rather, the idea is to first alert you to the fact that you must pay attention to your breath as you breathe in and out. This is the first step of "mind and breath depending on each other," making the consciousness follow the breathing.
"When you breathe out a long exhalation, know how long the breath is." In correcting your mind, you must not depart from breathing and breathing in: you yourself must be aware of how long your exhalations and inhalations last. "When you breathe in a long inhalation, know how long the breath is." Pay attention to the word "know." If on one hand you are cultivating the breath and on the other hand your brain is full of chaotic thoughts, this is not right, this will not bring results. Thinking must be matched with breathing: this is called focusing the mind by ananapana."

Maybe I interpreted the passages incorrectly, if so, please kindly give some input!
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Ben
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Re: Nostril concentration risks?

Post by Ben »

Thanks you Zimesky,

Instead of a work that co-mingles Buddhism and Taoism, may I suggest something from the Venerable Ledi Sayadaw:
http://www.dhammaweb.net/books/ledi/Led ... ration.pdf
kind regards,

Ben
“No lists of things to be done. The day providential to itself. The hour. There is no later. This is later. All things of grace and beauty such that one holds them to one's heart have a common provenance in pain. Their birth in grief and ashes.”
- Cormac McCarthy, The Road

Learn this from the waters:
in mountain clefts and chasms,
loud gush the streamlets,
but great rivers flow silently.
- Sutta Nipata 3.725

Compassionate Hands Foundation (Buddhist aid in Myanmar) • Buddhist Global ReliefUNHCR

e: [email protected]..
Zimesky
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Re: Nostril concentration risks?

Post by Zimesky »

fivebells wrote:Zimesky, are you experiencing any difficulties similar to what you're asking about?
I had been experiencing a few week long headache when I originally posted this, and was also trying the concentration at the tip of the nose instructions. I very rarely get headaches so when I had it I was thinking that the instructions may have been part of the cause. Headaches gone though! For now the only other side effect I can ascribe to the concentration is possibly an overly flushed face once and awhile.
Ben wrote:Thanks you Zimesky,

Instead of a work that co-mingles Buddhism and Taoism, may I suggest something from the Venerable Ledi Sayadaw:
http://www.dhammaweb.net/books/ledi/Led ... ration.pdf
kind regards,

Ben
Thank you for that link Ben! I really enjoyed the river/shore/boat analogy at the beginning, still continuing to read through it.
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