Vanity.

If you think you’re better than other people, you are vain.

If you think you’re more compassionate, kind, or enlightened than other people, you are vain.

If you think anyone deserves anything to happen to them - death, prison, illness, pain or any kind of a non-trivial inconvenience, simply for what they said and how it made you feel, you are exceptionally vain. You’re a borderline narcissist, and your self-righteousness is your mask, it is an excuse for your violence.

If you think you are, in some fundamental way, more developed or “evolved” than animals, that humans have some special form of divinity, some unique capacity to attain “mergence with the divine”, which animals don’t have, you are doubly vain. Animals don’t need enlightenment. You do.

And if, instead of a heartfelt chuckle, reading any of this arises any sort of objection in you, if you get angry, offended, defensive, indignant or dismissive, if you hear yourself saying in your mind: “I’m not vain, that’s not me!” or “Pft! Another know-if-all!”, then you certainly habitually go out of your way to present yourself to other people as “not vain”, which means - you guessed it! - you are vain.

That’s what prevents enlightenment and it’s very painful to realize. Suffice it to say, if you think you have realized it, but still experience emotion in your daily communication with other people, then you haven’t yet seen the true depth of your vanity.