Yogi: Do some amount of analyzing and making inferences have a place in the awareness practice?
Sayadaw: There are right thought and wrong thought. Right thought is helpful to the dhamma – right thought or wise thought helps the awareness because if there is wisdom in the thoughts, awareness is already present.
It is wrong thought that we don’t feed. If the mind is discursively thinking about somebody that makes the mind angry, don’t keep paying attention to the story; look at the emotion. If you can’t look at the emotion, look at something neutral, because thinking about that wrong thought is just going to keep feeding the anger and keep making the mind suffer.
Negative thinking also doesn’t allow the mind to see clearly.
When there is wise thinking, we should think it, but we should also be careful that it doesn’t get out of control where greed just wants to continue to think.
Right thought actually helps awareness to be awake. Right thought is also like right attention, bringing the mind’s attention to what is wise and skilful – that’s right thought’s action. And, wrong thought will bring more agitation and suffering to the mind.
Don’t just keep practicing – stop and check what is it happening that is making the mind tense? How have I been practicing that is making the mind tense? If the mind is relaxed, how have I been practicing? What is the mind doing that is giving this result now? That’s right thought – it helps the awareness to see the right thing.
When motivated in the right way, this sort of investigation helps to maintain the awareness.