Yogi: How do I know if my investigation/analysis is right or wrong? I’m confused.
Sayadaw: You have thought enough and it hasn’t helped – you should stop thinking.
The practice of awareness is not about thinking. When you’re aware, the mind is also gathering the information that you’re not conscious of.
The intelligence bit is just the wisdom of how to be aware. It is not thinking about what you’re being aware of. It’s just the intelligence of how to be aware.
When insight comes, it gives you an answer that is beyond what you can think about. And that’s what insight is – it is something that you cannot think about.
It is something that becomes understood beyond our current understanding.
You have thought enough – now you’re going to be aware. Every time you have this recurring thought, you’re going to recognize the thought and recognize how it feels to have this thought, again, again and over again – ‘thought, feeling, thought, feeling’ every moment. You’re not stopping the thought – just recognizing it and the associated feeling.
Doing this actually stabilizes the mind, and at some point, wisdom will bring all the gathered information together and tell you something. When? We don’t know.