In this new video — part of an ongoing teaching series on Mingyur Rinpoche’s text Stainless Prajña: Stages of Meditation on the Treasury of Abhidharma — Rinpoche leads us to reflect on The Four Elements in the Body, exploring how the elements manifest in our own bodies.
Mingyur Rinpoche teaches that, according to the Abhidharma teachings, matter is simply energy — nothing is truly substantial or enduring. Everything is in a constant state of flow and flux, shaped by various causes and conditions.
“The elements serve as the basis of all “conditioned phenomena,” making them a significant starting point to explore the nature of matter.”
In Rinpoche’s video (above), he shares that “everything is energy” and introduces the four elements — earth, water, fire, and wind — that make up this energy. While these elements are beyond direct sight, Rinpoche explains that we can still experience them by noticing the sensations in our bodies. “The Buddha said that to get the direct experience of reality, the best doorway or gateway is sensation,” he says.
The Four Elements
We might think that having earth, water, fire, and wind in our bodies is an odd idea, but when we look at it, the elements are quite easy to recognize. These elements are present in everything that appears to us, from mountains and rivers to trees and our bodies. Even our mind, which is intimately connected with our body, is affected by them. When there is an imbalance in our physical body, it has an inevitable effect on the mind.
Thus, the elements serve as the basis of all “conditioned phenomena,” making them a significant starting point to explore the nature of matter. In Buddhist philosophy, all things in the world — physical objects, thoughts, emotions, or experiences — are considered conditioned because they depend on other factors to exist.
If we grit our teeth or knock our knuckles together, we can experience the hardness associated with the earth element. How many times a day do we go to the loo, as the English say? That is the water element. Rubbing our hands together? That is heat, the fire element, while even the most vital and unthought-of action of all — breathing in and out — is the wind element.
Earth Element
The earth element manifests as hardness, weight, and stability. Whilst it is most noticeable in things like our bones and teeth, it is truly everywhere in our body, showing up as sensations of pressure, tension, and tightness. When we lift something, we experience weight and resistance — the earth element in action. For the practice itself, when we are experiencing a strong sensation in our body, we bring awareness to it. We can notice the quality of hardness when we grit our teeth, knock our knuckles, or touch our cranium or knees. In recognizing the hardness, we are aware of the earth element in our body.
Water Element
The water element is a vital force that flows through our bodies and the environment, manifesting in various forms such as liquid, solid (think snow and ice), and in the atmosphere, as clouds and invisible water vapor. In a broader sense, the water element represents the principle of cohesion. Consider how wet clothes cling to our skin or how water gathers in pools or forms droplets on a leaf. Without cohesion, a sandcastle would simply crumble. The earth element is dependent on water; it cannot exist without it. This quality of solidity is intricately tied to cohesion, further illustrating the interconnectedness of all things.
Looking inward, we begin to explore how the water element flows within us. We can feel the water element in the moisture of our mouth, the sweat of our skin, or the tears that well up when we are moved. Water forms a vital link between our inner and outer worlds, from blood and saliva to sweat and tears.
As we engage in these practices, we might find ourselves questioning reality in ways that we have not since early childhood! Questions like “When we drink water from a fresh stream, at what point does the outer world become part of us? Is there really such a division between our body and the world in which we live?”
Fire Element
The fire element is the energy that fuels life itself. Its presence is essential for transformation and vitality. Our bodies rely on the right balance of warmth for things like digestion and physical comfort. The ice age must have been miserable!
At its core, the fire element is about “ripening,” a process that signifies change and growth. Just like unripe fruit that ripens quickly in a warm environment while the chill of a fridge slows the process down, life on Earth is inextricably linked with the sun, the very heart of the fire element.
To connect with this vibrant energy, we take a moment to notice the warm spots in our body — perhaps the heat radiating from our hands, the warmth in our neck, or under our armpits. These sensations are reminders of the fire element at work within us. We can also feel its presence in everyday moments — sipping a cup of hot tea that warms us up inside, warming our hands by a crackling fire, or sinking into a soothing hot bath. We can experience fire as a moment of enthusiasm, a spark of inspiration, or the volcanic heat of anger rising through our body, turning our face red — that is the power of fire. The well-known saying “having fire in the belly” indicates energy, a zest for life, an enthusiasm or impetus that can stir us into action.
In meditation, all we are doing is noticing. In this case, the we are noticing fire in ourselves and the world around us. The practice invites us to observe without judgment or expectation. Just as a fire can flicker and blaze, it can also simmer down to embers, reminding us of the impermanence of all things and the ever-changing nature of causes and conditions.
Wind Element
The wind element correlates to air, the breath, and the movement of chi (or qi, vital life force) in our bodies, and thus is the instigator of all change, movement, and possibility.
The easiest and most noticeable aspect of the wind element is our breath. We breathe in, we breathe out. Without this, we would not be here. We come into life on an inbreath and leave life with an outbreath. Astonishingly, we never even think about this — we just do it!
Apart from the movement within our own bodies, the wind element is perpetually in action, from the vast scale of the cosmos to the movement of the tectonic plates on our own planet to the more noticeable changes of seasons. It supports the delicate balance of our ecosystems right down to the emergence of a butterfly from a cocoon. Without the air element, everything would be static. There would be no growth. Movement is life.
In our practice, we look inward and might even feel the subtle vibrations of the dynamic energy of the wind element that flows through us. By observing the wind element in both the grand and subtle aspects of our experience, we can truly recognize how it supports all transformation along with its reminder of impermanence, inspiring us to embrace change and flow with the currents of life.
–Tsunma Kunsang Palmo
See the previous pieces from this series on the Abhidharma:
Where Concentration and Insight Meet, by Mingyur Rinpoche & Edwin Kelley
How Buddhist Abhidharma Practice Mitigates Aversion, Craving, and Suffering, by Mingyur Rinpoche & Edwin Kelley
Understanding Abhidharma, a.k.a. Buddhist Psychology — a Q&A with Edwin Kelley
Your Wisdom Is Your Superpower, by Mingyur Rinpoche
