The Energy Feeling of 2nd Gear?

Today during practice I was resting in open awareness, just watching what arises, then decided to do a 2nd gear practice. I asked "Who Am I?" like once, and rather than repeating the question like I have in the past, I felt a taste of something I'd felt before and just followed that taste into my interpretation of what 2nd gear is. It feels very solid, stable and almost heavy, but not at all in an unpleasant way. I became a gawking observer with absolutely no inclination to do anything about anything going on around me. It was all just kind of captivating.

The one thing I noticed this time that I hadn't paid attention to before was this very strong, pulsing energy in the top of my face, starting at the cheeks and eyes and into the forehead and front of the top of the head. Hanging out there was just this constant pulse, pulse, pulse about once per second. When I'd go back to watching the "verbness" of the activity around me, that pulsing sensation was still very strongly present.

Since I don't know for sure exactly what 2nd gear and 3rd gear are, I thought some of you with more experience might be able to connect the dots between my described experience and these different practice states. I know my open awareness practice feels very light and mostly free of noticeable energy and this is a definite contrast.

Is there something I should be doing with this energy when I notice it?

For context, I'm a newbie and I don't yet do any noting practice as I am spending the first 50 hours of my practice doing Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche's prescribed "Joy of Living" practice which focuses on just recognizing awareness through form, sound, taste, body sensation, emotion, and thought. I figure that this seems to line up with 3rd gear practice so it can't hurt?

Thanks!

orasis,

For me the witness doesn't have a particular energy feeling as it changes depending on what strata of mind I am currently witnessing. While dwelling as the witness, you might move up and down the arc and so the energy will change in response to that.

The actual witness, though feels like a centering of awareness in the middle/back of the head that is looking out through the eyes. It can get very solid and stable (but not in an unpleasant way) and I feel like an observer who doesn't want to change anything.

All the same, it's a bit hard to know what you are describing without some other context / deeper description of your practice and what you experience in a sitting.

Oh, if you notice energy, pay attention to it and observe it (and note it). That's all you need to do.

I like what Mumuwu wrote. Very helpful. I would just add one bit of clarification: while you are dwelling as the witness, don't note. The witness only has one object of attention, which is the sense of "I". When that becomes very stable, you can expand the sense of "I" to include the rest of your experience while keeping the witness in the foreground. But noting practice is 1st Gear and the witness is 2nd Gear. If you do noting practice while in the witness, you are no longer doing the witness, you have downshifted to 1st Gear. It's not that one gear is better than another, but rather that we want to keep the instructions and definitions clear.

Another point is that I don't recommend that yogis spend a of time doing witness practice until after 2nd Path. Before that, you can most efficiently use your practice time by noting and doing vipassana and samatha. 2nd Path provides a good platform from which to practice 2nd and 3rd Gear, but if you get too involved with the witness before 2nd Path, it just gets confusing.