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...or that's my understanding of the advice I was given on Chan (Zen) retreat last weekend.

During a Q&A session I told the monastic that I was occasionally experiencing wobbling during my sits. It's free moving and I have the choice to repress it (which seems counter to my meditation progress), let it go and watch it, or join and accentuate it. Typically I go with watching it and find it to be pleasant.

The monastic said it sounded like chi moving in the body and I agree. His advice was-- and this is where I could use someone's experience-- to focus on the bubbling well of the foot and allow the energy to pass through. For the Chan (Zen) tradition, I think I see why. It seems they want stillness of the body first and foremost in cultivating awareness.

For me, I don't find the wobbling distracting or problematic, but I am still a beginner (between A&P and stream entry). Has anyone found this energy to be particularly useful or impeding in their practice? Have advice for handling it?

Hi Jeremy

Disclaimer: I'm not an "energy" expert, just a meditator who notices and recognized some of this stuff. Also, I'm not particularly advanced insight-wise. Just so you can place my comments.

One way to look at this is: it's a bunch of sensations, so note them, if you're doing noting practice, or do whatever it is you do in your practice. Skin itches, breath streaming through nostrils, chi gyrating around ankles - it's all the same.

Another approach to the energy stuff would be to try to manipulate, guide, dump out of feet - and I'm really out of my depth here. Maybe I've been lucky so far, but with me, these phenomena have never been too annoying or disruptive (similar to but distinct from: mild headache, queasy stomach, lump-in-throat), so I just let them do their thing.

I think both approaches are useful - treating the energy stuff as just another set of sensations is the thing to in a "pure" insight meditation context. Active energy work is the thing for an energy workout. There are mixed approaches, maybe your teacher uses that, judging from his suggestion; Ven. Thanissaro's breath meditation also has a fairly active "energy" component.

If you've just transitioned from a&p to dark night, then some tranquility/concentration exercise such as "dumping" energy out of your feet is a really good thing - Kenneth once suggested that the big shifts a&p/dark night, and re-observation/equanimity are good times to pump up concentration/tranquility.

Oh, and "Vibrations", the way I understand the term, is simply: "how often do I notice a sensation".

Cheers,
Florian

Wiggling during sitting: usually mid-first vipassana jhana, such as Cause and Effect and Three Characteristics. Just because you have crossed the A&P doesn't mean you won't cycle back through that territory to work up again. Also can be early A&P. Usually the Dark Night doesn't do this, and Equanimity is more likely to produce head drops than wiggling. Thus, the notion that it is Chi is useful, as those early ñanas have a chi-heavy feel to them, which is normal.

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