Yogi: When negative thinking and feeling arise, I can stop them.
Sayadaw: Don’t try to stop them – let them show up and watch. You can then better understand how they work. If you stop them, you cannot watch and learn from the process. You can learn something if you let awareness see the process.
The problem with yogis is that when pleasant experience arises, they enjoy and when unpleasant experience arises, they try to stop them. Wisdom then cannot come because they get involved with the experience.
People don’t want to see suffering – they run away or try to cover up suffering – that is why they can never be free from suffering.
So, try to face the suffering again and again by being aware without controlling the experience. This is the vipassana nature. Resisting and being attached to objects is the way of defilement – the way of liking and disliking, not the way of wisdom.