| | 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 |