“Maybe you’re wondering how the aggregates make obstacles for us. On the simplest level, our own body is made up of the aggregates. This body is one of the major obstacles for our practice. In Tibet there’s a village saying: “This body is so small—just the length of one’s own arms outstretched. Our mind is also small—so small that we can’t even see it. The mouth also is very small. Yet we’re always laboring for this small body, invisible mind, and tiny mouth!” So it goes from the time we’re born until we die.

Of course, we don’t usually describe it that way. Instead we say, “I’m really busy. I have to do this cooking and get my hair done up and go to that entertainment, then play golf. I have so many things to do!” We may think up all sorts of ways to describe what we’re so busy doing all the time, but if we look honestly, these three things are what we’ve been serving, and they’re what’s kept us so busy all this time. As a result, our spiritual activity gets lost in the shuffle. We may have devotion and good aspirations to benefit other beings, yet even with these good qualities, many times we pass up Dharma opportunities because we’re so strongly attached to our aggregates. In the language of Chod, the demon of the aggregates has obstructed us and carried us away from our main goal.”