The Obstruction Standing Between People and Buddhas

All attachments are manifestations of attachment to a self. The self is the only reality of which we are aware since birth. All other realities are simply reflections and transformations of this one underlying reality. At least, we assume this reality to be real. Yet when we examine our self in the light of wisdom, it is found to be without any basis at all. This is the only obstruction standing between foolish people and buddhas. If foolish people realized that they are not people, much less foolish, they would be buddhas. As long as they don't, they remain foolish people.

---Red Pine, in his commentary on The Diamond Sutra---