How to not let the attachment to a self and its preferences influence the choice of a particular tradition in buddhism?
This is just a suggestion, but in the Mahayana practice, there is a sect called the SGI. The followers consider them selves "lay-buddhists" and the goal of the practice is to atrain buddhahood and ultimately help create a world of world peace. The community in my experience is very supportive and a nice community to become apart of. I know that it is seen by some as a religion that doesn't have value and that the leader isn't enlightened, but part of the reason for that is because the sutra on which the SGI is based upon is the lotus sutra which is very different ideologically than that of many other sutras. In my opinion, the religion itself, since it doesn't have monks or nuns, as well as other common aspects of many religions, is more of a philosophy. The philosophy, in my opinion, has lots of depth and is very interesting. Here is a website if you want to learn more: 

What the SGI is about:
http://www.sgi.org/our-story.html

The main website:
http://www.sgi.org