![]() Now both the internal water element and the external water element are simply water element. What is the internal water element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is water, watery, and clung-to, that is, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, sweat, fat, tears, grease, spittle, snot, oil-of-the-joints, urine, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is water, watery, and clung-to: this is called the internal water element. MN 140 § 15: "What, bhikkhu, is the water element? The water element may be either internal or external. ![]() And that should be seen as it actually is with proper wisdom thus: ‘This is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self.’ When one sees it thus as it actually is with proper wisdom, one becomes disenchanted with the earth element and makes the mind dispassionate towards the earth element." Now both the internal earth element and the external earth element are simply earth element. What is the internal earth element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is solid, solidified, and clung-to, that is, head-hairs, body-hairs, nails, teeth, skin, flesh, sinews, bones, bone-marrow, kidneys, heart, liver, diaphragm, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery, contents of the stomach, feces, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is solid, solidified, and clung-to: this is called the internal earth element. MN 140 § 14: "What, bhikkhu, is the earth element? The earth element may be either internal or external. And while these teachings may ostensibly seem straightforward and high-level, that is only true for those who are just beginning to approach and think about the Primary Elements, because for those who have positioned themselves in more advanced places along the Buddhist curve, these teachings are deep and profoundly beneficial to the cultivation of our wisdom. My students are well-aware that I possess a strong predilection of steering them away from the alluring eddies of Buddhist metaphysics and Buddhist cosmology however, understanding the teachings of the Buddhist Primary Elements in the development of our wisdom (pañña) is not a distraction or a waste of precious time, but rather a very skilful and beneficial use of our effort. The Buddha only taught that which is true and beneficial to our striving to extinguish the fuel that feeds samsara. Truth be told, that's a position that is borne of a misunderstanding of the actual teaching and the place this teaching serves as a lesson to be contemplated and understood within Buddhism.įrom the perspective of a Buddhist practitioner who is learning, studying, contemplating, and meditating in order to realise progress along the Buddhist path toward enlightenment, the Four Elements are just as applicable and practical to our understanding and practice today as it was over 2,600 years ago when they were taught by the Buddha to his disciples. Many practitioners question the relevance and applicability of the Primary Elements in the 21st Century, especially since Science has come so far that it makes it seem almost childish or irrelevant to adopt a view that the world around us is made up of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air elements. ![]() ![]() I am occasionally asked by students and other practitioners about how to understand and apply the teachings on the Four Elements (Pāli: cattāro mahābhūtāni ) of Earth, Water, Fire, and Air and what is meant by the notion that everything is made up of some combination of Earth Elements, Water Elements, Fire Elements, and Air Elements and, the less-often-mentioned, Fifth Element of Space.
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