You’ve got it backwards. Thought does not arise from self - self is a product of thought
Yes it is the illusion that I, the 'self, me, is generating thoughts: I am thinking. No. Thinking is occurring. There is no I ‘doing’ it. They appear. It is the ‘intellectual’ brain in operation, be it fuzzy or be it brilliant. It goes in its own direction guided only by memory and association.
Isn’t that why, choiceless awareness of its operation is so critical to understanding the illusory ‘self’ and how it works?
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Yes
But one can also claim : thought is a product of self.
This is because they are not really separate, different things.
Consider the following as an illustration : Self is desire and aversion. Desire and aversion are in a way thoughts : I want/I dont want…
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What’s intellectual about self-deception?
Inquiry asked: What’s intellectual about self-deception?
Do you mean to ask, “What’s intelligent about self-deception?” Intellectualization is not intelligent when self-deception occurs. Unfortunately, we are always intellectual, hardly ever intelligent.
Could you expand a bit on what you’ve posted?
Three ‘brains’ or ‘centers’: The moving, physical. The emotional, feeling, The intellectual. …Intellectual is the measuring part brain, the calculating, the planning ahead part, the thinking process, the ‘logical’ part…