Ignorance in life created all other obstacles to enlightenment. Obstacles grow automatically through the power of desires. This is a desire world and often what we desire becomes an obstacle to our growth toward enlightenment. It is also said that what we go after here determines where we go hereafter.

The spiritual aspirant must seek balance in life. He cannot love the things of this world too much as this will continue to bind him. Also, he must not hate the things of this world too much as this will also bind him.

Attachment comes from things that make a deep impression in the mind. And where one is in consciousness, determines what makes a deep impression in the mind.

Detachment comes from the infusion of the Being into the nature of the mind, so that deep impressions are no longer possible, except for the desire to become spiritual which does make a deep and lasting impression in the body, mind and soul.

Anyone who does not move toward non-attachment in life and becomes enmeshed in material pursuits, upon his rebirth, will be confronted by the same obstacles that caused his failure in the present life. One comes into the world with lessons to be learned and karma to live out.

Those who are on the spiritual path and desire enlightenment still must deal with their obstacles set up in prior lives. However, the power of these samskaras are greatly reduced and do not present as serious a threat as long as one stays on the path and continues to progress. If one goes back to making material pursuits a priority, then one sets the samskaras into full force again.

So, we must still guard against these samskaras, only now, having infused the Being, we have a new found strength we did not previously possess to help us stay with our spiritual focus.

To regard the non-eternal as eternal and to regard the non-Atman as the Atman is ignorance in full bloom.

To identify consciousness with that which reflects consciousness is egoism.

We must learn to read nature and not to continue to misread nature. As long as we continue to misread nature, we will continue to dwell on the external things of life and remain unaware of the internal. As long as we continue to misread nature we will see the universe as multiplicity and not as unity.

Due to ignorance, we continue to seek happiness and peace in the external aspect of life and we are forced to accept very poor, transient substitutes. Then, we try to convince ourselves that this is real, and we become really deluded.

What is real is real as long as we see it as reality, but when we awaken to actuality, we then realize that such reality was the maya, or the waking dream.

We seek God in a far off heaven and we fail to realize that God is within ourselves; the spark is the flame.