Feeling and awareness are the delusive thought of illusory brightness

All feelings are illusory and empty delusive thinking (妄想), with no real substance at all—merely self-deception. Being able to know that you have deceived yourself is the prelude to awakening. When you know how you have deceived yourself, and know how to stop deceiving yourself, you have awakened; from then on, no longer deceiving yourself, that is liberation.

All people live around their feelings and sensations—they live just for a feeling. What is a feeling? How many people are clearly suffering greatly, yet feel good about themselves? How many people, for the sake of their feelings, do not hesitate to commit unwholesome karma, and then suffer the painful retribution of that evil karma? All of this arises from ignorance, folly, and afflictions. How much suffering has folly brought upon oneself—and who, in the end, can awaken to this point? What does it mean to feel good about oneself? It means that there is a self within the mind that is satisfied with that self; as long as that self can be displayed and shown off, the mind feels content, happy, and at ease. When encountering adverse conditions, one becomes repressed, gives rise to anger, and complains. Why is this so? Because there is a self in the mind that has been provoked and contradicted, and so one feels unhappy, depressed, and distressed—this is the mark of self of sentient beings.