The Supreme Obstacle on the Path: Ego-Clinging

The afflictive obstructions impede both meditative concentration and wisdom, obscuring the radiance of wisdom just as a wall blocks the light. Once afflictions are eliminated and the obstructions removed, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses can transform into wisdom, enabling their insight to become vast and unimpeded. Those with heavy afflictions and habitual tendencies, whose minds are narrow and confined, can only perceive the surface of the Dharma, unable to penetrate its profound subtleties. The seventh consciousness, heavily constrained by afflictions and habits, revolves around a self and cannot break through; thus, all it perceives is colored by self-nature, resulting in narrow wisdom. This shows that the wisdom of selflessness is indeed vast. Therefore, we should constantly observe whether our minds harbor self-nature or unfairness. Upon discovering selfish self-nature, we must strive to subdue it, for such tendencies conflict with the Buddha-mind and inevitably obstruct the path. Compared to the Way, self-nature is like cow hairs to the cow—it must be removed to attain the cow itself, not merely the hairs.