Is this 2nd gear?

Hi,

I was practicing basic attention stuff and started to notice that I could use my eyes to "look back" at whatever was looking through them. When i do this there is sort of a localized space which awareness is coming from, but it doesn't seem to really have a center or boundaries, it isn't an object in the normal sense. If I try to locate it anywhere it seems to be broader than that spot, like if I try to "locate it" in the head it starts appearing in the heart area also. Is "staring" at this sense of "observingness" 2nd Gear practice? It seems quite nice to do practice like this though I don't really know where it is leading if I keep it up.

-Adam

Ah yes. This is good. Just keep observing where the observer pops up. If a Witness sense arises that is different from your normal experience, you can just marinate in that, and over time it will dissolve in to ever more pristine experience.

"Ah yes. This is good. Just keep observing where the observer pops up. If a Witness sense arises that is different from your normal experience, you can just marinate in that, and over time it will dissolve in to ever more pristine experience."

Can you point me to any descriptions of someone taking this witness practice to that point? I looked around and people seem generally to treat 2nd gear as just an interesting state not something that would cause real development as opposed to 1st gear which is very clearly about moving one through a developmental process. Also, which stage would one be at if one's "witness" dissolved?

Also... is there any commonly believed explanation for the fact that this is apparently the same practice used by people like ramana maharshi and gary weber and nisargadatta maharaj and they got to a stage of "no thought" and total oneness with everything which seems more profound than just having the witness dissolve..?

"One way to see through this apparent watcher is to become absorbed into it, understanding that it will eventually collapse of its own accord. Ramana Maharshi referred to the Witness as "the stick that stirs the fire and is eventually consumed by it." When the Witness dissolves, you will find that you have naturally arrived at 3rd Gear, the direct apprehension of buddha nature in your own being."

From kennethfolkdharma.wetpaint.com/page/2nd+Gear

This is what has been basically happening to me over the last year. The witnessing sense has become increasingly more subtle and non-seperation increasingly more vivid. There have been periods of peak experiences that gave a taste of no-witness, "just the seen" and these have shown the mind what is further possible.

I have found it unlikely to have these peak experiences if there is a lot of thought. So concentrating and settling the mind into low-thought mode seems to increase the probability of being able to surrender deeper and deeper until in/out, hereness, nowness, existing, all disappear.

But, this is still my leading edge, so others may be able to comment from deeper experience.

Ok thanks for the info!

When I ask myself "What is experiencing this?" or "Where am I experiencing this?", I experience a non-localized blankness/emptiness where phenemena appears and disappears. I'm not sure I understand 2nd and 3rd gear but they seem to merge. Or, I am in 2nd gear for a very short time and then it shifts to 3rd gear. I am aware of a witness for only a moment. I can't stay in 3rd gear for very long. Then it's back to the witness for a moment or so.

jack

Hm... so while practicing this I remembered a discussion from one of the actual freedom DVDs talking about the witness. Richard had the opinion that the point of spiritual practice was to become the witness, but that is besides the point. Something he said was "who's watching the watcher?" I realized from asking this while in fairly strong pure witness concentration that there has to be some consciousness prior to the "witness" if it is to be known at all. This didn't result in any shift, the witness sensations were still there, but I may have access to some new mode... i don't need that pointer anymore, I can just sort of see everything as "energy" or "awareness" and i shift into this other mode, I will work with this for a while.

edit: and yet perhaps it still is helpful to do witness, i always jump to conclusions

Ultimately we will see beyond the witness and find that there is no fundamental subject or even a fundamental background "Awareness" upon which or from which experience occurs. There is, ultimately, only luminous experience that is already always meaning-free and perfected.

awakeningtoreality.blogspot.com/2007/03/...s-of-experience.html