Mindfulness with heartbeat. Is it a hindrance?

General discussion of issues related to Theravada Meditation, e.g. meditation postures, developing a regular sitting practice, skillfully relating to difficulties and hindrances, etc.
shoenhad
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Re:

Post by shoenhad »

sunnat wrote: Sun Jun 06, 2021 3:53 am There are other ways to understand the cautionings.

With a weak heart and other degenerations associated with old age like constricted blood vessels (which is a cause of headaches, as well as reduced brain function) if one persists with equanimous awareness of pain in those areas one may risk heart attack, stroke or death.
Thank you for the input sir!

I can imagine in cases where this reaction occurs like mike mentioned that one would be wise to exercise care if there are underlying predispositions.

I would however give some push back here in that if there is an equanimous awareness of the pain then would there even be a problem?
If one is fitter and or detached from fear of death then continued awareness...
I would prefer the term attention instead of awareness here. Two are obviously related yet i think it wouldn’t be inaccurate to say that one could divert attention from said phenomenon but still remain aware of it although we could get into somewhat murky territory here and not really where i am looking to go.

I think we mostly mean the same thing.
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frank k
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Re: Mindfulness with heartbeat. Is it a hindrance?

Post by frank k »

Based on what you describe, noticing the heartbeat doesn't seem to be a hindrance, so I wouldn't worry about it.
Both kayagatasati, and and anapanasati, what makes them effective as a meditation technique is they give your mind a pleasant anchor, that keeps it from wandering to distracted thoughts. Whether it's awareness of body posture, breath as it is sensed in every cell of the body, sensation at the feet as you walk, (partial) jhana can be done in all of these activities. If noticing the heartbeat is relaxing and conducive to jhana, it's fine and legitimate as a kayagatasati practice. If it's relaxing, then it's fulfilling passadhi sambojjhanga pacification awakening factor.

The case where the teacher said not to pay attention to heartbeat or other body part, was because it was causing problems with those students, headache or hypertension or whatever.

https://lucid24.org/sted/kayagatasati/index.html

kāya-gatā-sati 🏃‍kgs = body-immersed-remembering 念身
This practice involves maintaining continuous attention anchored to the physical body, or a bodily process (examples, SN 47.20, SN 35.247. Doing so guards the sense doors. Also, like 16APS🌬️😤 breath meditation, which is a subset of 🏃‍kgs, it has the wondrous property of removing unprofitable thoughts and hindrances, since the energy required to monitor physical processes fully occupies one's attentional bandwidth, leaving no room for extraneous thoughts. Comparing MN 119 (🏃‍kgs sutta) with MN 10 (sati'paṭṭhāna sutta), the body contemplation (kāya-anu-passana) exercises listed are identical, except that MN 119 🏃‍kgs also includes the 4 jhānas and their similes (AN 5.28). Where the two suttas differ, is that the refrain that follows each exercise, in MN 10 there is a set of vipassana instructions to oberve rise and fall, etc. Whereas in MN 119 🏃‍kgs, the refrain instead has instructions to use the exercise to get into 4 jhānas. Interestingly, MN 119 🏃‍kgs, never mentions the ubiquitous 4sp🐘 formula at all. Surveying all the pāli sutta refernces to 🏃‍kgs, it's a frequently occurring theme to use 🏃‍kgs to get into 4 jhānas, or to expect that one is doing 🏃‍kgs with 4 jhānas concurrently.

suriyopama wrote: Wed Dec 02, 2009 1:42 am I have no problem at all to be aware of my breath for many hours, but I rarely notice the breathing alone. There’s always breath+heartbeat, and sometimes the heartbeat is even more intense than the breath, no matter in what position I am. And when there's a clock at the room, the heartbeat is always perfectly synchronized with the ticktock.

I exposed this question at E-Sangha one year ago, and the recommendation was “let it go”. But after all this time letting go and dont' worrying, I’m still having a heartbeat!! (lucky me 8-) )

Could there be a hindrance in some way? It doesn’t make me feel annoyed, but sometimes I feel like I am doing something wrong, because everybody talks about “Mindfulness with Breathing” and focusing on one single thing, but nobody says “Mindfulness with Heartbeat”.

There are many instructions about how to fight difference hindrances, they explain with detail how to deal with the most subtle feelings and thoughts, but nobody mentions the heart beat. ¿why? ¿Am I the only one that notice the feeling of the heartbeat when trying to meditate?. It's always present, so what is the meaning of "mindfulness with breathing" for me? I've even tried to focus only on the heartbeat, but I neither can isolate it from the breath.
:heart: :shrug: :heart:

ps: I'm not having any kind of cardiopathy disorder, it's perfectly normal.
www.lucid24.org/sted : ☸Lucid24.org🐘 STED definitions
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