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I have recently started meditation . I'm just doing normal breathing techniques and concentration techniques. Though, while trying to concentrate I feel this weird shiver in my eyelids and whole skull area and a weird heaviness in my body?Is it normal?how can we control this?

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Welcome to Buddhism.SE.

I'm not sure what the current policy is on these sorts of questions, but considering how powerful the mind is, seeking help in a forum like this might be problematic.

while trying to concentrate I feel this weird shiver in my eyelids and whole skull area and a weird heaviness in my body?

I'm guessing the question mark is a way of saying something like "I don't even know if I'm describing it correctly". The Buddha used teachings like the five aggregates to help students understand that feelings are just feelings, shivering is just shivering, heaviness is just heaviness, etc. You finding it weird is just a mental phenomenon and has nothing to do with the nature of the experience itself - i.e. it's not weird, that's your judgement of it.

Is it normal?

Meditation can trigger all sorts of responses as it affects mental and physical formations that exist prior to meditaiton practice. There is no "normal", as your physical and mental condition are unique. Also, different meditation practices will affect the body and mind differently, so there's really a very wide range of potential feelings, etc. that you might experience.

how can we control this?

Control has the danger of increasing attachment of self. Regarding your experience specifically, there is no real Buddhist imperative to control feelings; what we are interested in changing is our reactions to experiences, not the experiences themselves.

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My advice is to simply breathe, and to feel the breath in your body, see how that operates in your perceptions, allow mind and breath to become one, and to simply rest in the Dhamma/Dharma as you best know it. Concentration comes and goes on it's own, be natural with it, it goes where it belongs when you don't try to direct it. In other words, right concentration of mind is natural in meditation. This alone will take you deeper quite naturally.

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You said

while trying to concentrate.

This is not conductive to the practice .In Meditation you simply notice whatever is there.It frees you from the idea of making your mind act forcefully.Frees you from should and should nots.Every action then becomes natural because its based on awareness of experience. Real understanding.

You said you felt weird shiver in your eyelids and whole skull area and a weird heaviness in body ,just notice them when they arise , know they exist.And again don't make it as instruction for your mind even the noticing itself should't be instruction when for you there is only existence then it sets you free.

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The Buddha did not teach any breathing techniques or concentration techniques. The Buddha simply taught to keep the mind free from craving & therefore to simply sit still & quiet. When a practitioner sits still & quiet, without any desires or thinking, the mind will automatically become aware of the breathing. As for "concentration" ("samadhi"), this is simply the increase or convergence of this "quiet mind".

As for shiver in eyelids & whole skull area and a weird heaviness in the body, these are probably effects of your wrong meditation technique and possibly combined with your past kamma. If we want to meditate, our life needs to be relatively pure. We must follow the five precepts and not take drugs, alcohol, watch pornography or have casual sex.

The Buddha taught mindfulness & concentration as follows:

A monk develops mindfulness & concentration as factors for awakening relying on seclusion [from sensual pleasures], relying on dispassion, relying on cessation, maturing as letting go.

MN 118

The word "mindfulness" means "to remember to keep the mind" free from craving.

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  • Can one enter a state of stillness & quietness by being immersed in a discursive meditation, that is, Silanussati or Maranussati? I know your method is to be vigilant of the mind itself, but are such meditations suitable as well?
    – Val
    Apr 20, 2019 at 7:39
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    With maranussati, i would reply "yes" to the question. Regards Apr 20, 2019 at 9:24

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