Summary of the chapter on self-deception:

Spiritual realization/insight is not something to get, to
obtain, to acquire, to attain to. It's not something external that we
ingest or that gets otherwise internalized, and it's not something
alien to us that is implanted, added or imparted to us by someone
else. We acknowledge what we are, instead of dreaming up a perfect
ideal we wish we were.

With this in mind, how do we deal with a sudden flash of
realization/insight? Once we view the experience as something
valuable, we fear losing it (it's valuable, after all). Since we fear
losing (the memory of) it, we try to re-live it in order to remember
it. We hope for association with some dreamed-up perfection, and fear
separation from it.

The opposite of self-deception is facing life as it is.

(There is a section of questions and answers at the end, which I'll
skip here)

My thoughts:

Hollywood Lee wrote:

I do not contest that there are hard-wired survival
mechanisms that erupt without training. When I
begin to slip on ice, I adjust myself before I can
even become aware of doing so. I do not contest
that no amount of idealistic musings will override
the jump-aside response to an incoming truck, to
a normal person who doesn't want to kill himself.