Cause and effect: Where the cure isn't

An interesting example describing a common mistake that I and other seekers have made at some point in their inquiry popped up just this morning.

Say there's a big old wart or corn or something planted somewhere on your body that is just itching like hell. Creams and other medications just aren't working. So you go to the doctor with your problem. Now, what do you tell doc? Do you identify the problem as the itch, or as the wart itself?

Similarly, we talk of our existential, spiritual problem (i.e., a life of suffering, alienation, craving and fragmentation) being that of attachment with phenomena in our experience. Attachment is an aspect of ego-existence. The mistaken and hypnotized insistence on a self-sense as a central, core component of our being gives rise to attachment. The point is, should attachment be the focus of our inquiry as spiritual aspirants, or should it be the self-sense itself?

We recognize the troublesome itch as an effect of our wart and so come to recognize that an effective treatment for the itch is removal of the wart. In the same way, attachment is an effect of the sense of self that dominates our experience and confounds us into admitting it as a central part of who we are. Thus, we are best served to not get hung up about attachment and instead go straight ahead (as a topic of self-inquiry) into the sense of I-Me.