Yogi: How important is it to remember the insights intellectually – it could be very clear this moment, but come tomorrow, I don’t remember them exactly. Does the mind remember, or do I have to remember them?

Do I have to remember the insight by writing it down, or is the mind saving it somewhere?

Sayadaw: You don’t have to recall the insights – the mind does store it somewhere.

There are different levels of insight. Some insights are not very strong – it works now but does not in a different place, and you understand some insights for a while and they fade. More powerful insights last longer. 

So long as you keep being mindful, when the conditions are right, we’ll keep having insights.

The idea is to always have the conditions for insights to keep arising. One insight is not enough to entrench that insight in our mind – so, we have to keep refreshing insights, not by thinking about them, but by continuously being mindful so that insights are allowed to arise.

The insights, in and of themselves, are not so important or helpful to us because we can’t make them come. What we can do is be mindful.

We want to learn the skill of how to be mindful because it is mindfulness that makes the insights arise.