Impurity of Differentiation (Māyīya-Mala)

Māyīya-mala is the impurity of differentiation — the constraint by which the limited self, already feeling small, now sees a whole world of separate things outside itself: this object and that one, all distinct, all 'not me.' Born of the veiling power of māyā, it is the experience of duality, of a self set apart from a world of others. It follows from the first impurity and sets the stage for the third.