Sensations
yagr
Veteran
I've accepted the following as true:
Sensations -> Thoughts
Thoughts -> Feelings
Feelings -> Beliefs
Beliefs -> Behaviors
Behaviors -> Trouble
Okay, just kidding about the last one...sort of. Here's the question:
I've always thought of ...wow, new thought...okay, never mind that one right now, back on track: I've always thought of sensations as seeing, hearing, tasting, touch, and smell. But I'm noticing a new sensation...or at least I think it would qualify as a sensation - thought. Hearing something can lead to a thought, but so too can one thought lead to another thought. I'm sure the scholars around here will know, but does thought pull double duty as both part of the first entry in my flow chart as well as the second?
As for my new thought...I had just read that it is never helpful to use a thought to figure out a feeling. My new thought was wondering if it is also never helpful to use a feeling to figure out a belief or to...well, you probably see where this is going. I'm going to have to contemplate that line of thought. I'll get back to you on it. 
Comments
Looking at this from the point of the view of the five aggregates, consciousness, perception and feeling are said to be "conjoined", ie inseparable. So thoughts come later. and would be considered part of the mental formations aggregate. Note that mind is considered to be the sixth sense, so thoughts are also a "sensation".
But yes, thoughts can lead to emotions, and vice versa, and thoughts lead to more thoughts. From that stew intentions arise.
There is an acronym in computing GIGO which means 'garbage in, garbage out'.
There are several issues related to this:
First we are basically a karmic garbage can recycling our thoughts, behavour, conflicted emotions, instincts etc - a seemingly endless pile of accumulation, hoarding and waste.
However ... through practice we can stop accumulating more karmic garbage, allow the existing to compost, find suitable outlets etc.
If working on ourselves we can start to generate a policy of DIDO, 'dharma in, dharma out'.
We start to understand the interdepence of our aggregates of being that @SpinyNorman mentions.
We start emptying the garbage.
-How cool; today is trash day...
I'd add one in myself. I wish I could remember which book this was, but it made sense to me. I think it was Buddhist book, but not 100% sure. Feelings -> emotions
Feelings are the sensations, we get sad, mad, whatever. They become emotions when we cling to them and let them take root, and then they serve to contribute to sprouting something else, whether beliefs or actions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vedanā
Cling
Not cling
You choose
Smile