the path

Anything that may be keeping you from enlightenment is a result of selfishness (enlightenment is not exclusive to buddhism). Light is a result of love and goodness, because light could not exist without creation. To be filled with Goodness and Love is to be "En-lightened".

It is difficult to remove selfish intention from one's life, and this gets more and more difficult as a person's mind becomes more and more reprobate to his own selfishness (i.e. a selfish person who is never challenged fails to see his actions as selfish and finds justification through pride).

A "wise" man, I'm sure, once said there is no praise or blame on the path to enlightenment. I agree there is no praise, but the word "blame" fails to represent what it is suggesting. True, blaming anyone for your own spiritual shortcomings is ridiculous and lazy. But finding responsibility and isolating the problem source is the only first step one can take if his intention is to defeat it. Is this "blame"? Or is this maturity? Anyone who is searching for the real problem source will find the answer lies inside his own mind, and will most likely require the individual to deny himself some "right" he feels entitled to.

It's all about eliminating your own entitlement. We deserve nothing, because there is always someone who needs it more. And giving love to someone for no reason is what God does, and is what God would have us do.

Say what God himself would say,
Live how God would live your day.
Do what God himself would do,
and God himself will live through you.