Mahabhuta 


Classical Elements
v • d • e

Greek

  Air  
Water Aether Fire
  Earth  

Hinduism (Tattva) and
Buddhism (Mahābhūta)

  Vayu/Pavan (Air/Wind)  
Ap/Jala (Water) Akasha (Aether) Agni/Tejas (Fire)
  Prithvi/Bhumi (Earth)  

Japanese (Godai)

  Air/Wind (風)  
Water (水) Void/Sky/Heaven (空) Fire (火)
  Earth (地)  

Tibetan (Bön)

  Air  
Water Space Fire
  Earth  

Chinese (Wu Xing)

  Fire (火)  
Metal (金) Earth (土) Wood (木)
  Water (水)  

Medieval Alchemy

  Air  
Water Aether Fire
  Earth
Sulphur Mercury Salt

Lemurian

  Air  
Water Ether Fire
  Earth
Wood Void Metal

Mahābhūta is Pāli for the "Great Elements."1 The four Great Elements (Pali: cattāro mahābhūtāni) are earth, water, fire and air. Mahābhūta is generally synonymous with catudhātu, which is Pāli for the "Four Elements."2 In early Buddhism, the Four Elements are a basis for understanding and for liberating oneself from suffering.

Contents

Definitions

In the Pali canon,3 the most basic elements are usually identified as four in number but, on occasion, a fifth and, to an even lesser extent, a sixth element may be also be identified.

Four primary elements

In canonical texts, the four Great Elements refer to elements that are both "external" (that is, outside the body, such as a river) and "internal" (that is, of the body, such as blood). These elements are described as follows:

These four elements are described as "primary" or "underived" (no-upādā) matter (rūpa), meaning that they cannot be analyzed into further atomistic units. While underived, this does not mean that they are "unconditioned."6 Thus, for instance, according to the 5th c. CE commentarial Visuddhimagga, "as to the proximate cause, each [element] has the other three as its proximate cause."7

Fifth and sixth elements

In addition to the above four elements of underived matter, two other elements are occasionally found in the Pali Canon:8

According to the Abhidhamma Pitaka, the "space element" is identified as "secondary" or "derived" (upādā).9

Soteriological uses

The Four Elements are used in Buddhist texts to both elucidate the concept of suffering (dukkha) and as an object of meditation. The earliest Buddhist texts explain that the four primary material elements are the sensory qualities solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility; their characterization as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively, is declared an abstraction -- instead of concentrating on the fact of material existence, one observes how a physical thing is sensed, felt, perceived.10


Understanding suffering

The Four Elements pertinence to the Buddhist notion of suffering comes about due to:

Schematically, this can be represented in reverse order as:

Four Noble Truths → Suffering → Aggregates → Form → Four Elements

Thus, to deeply understand the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, it is beneficial to have an understanding of the Great Elements.

Meditation object

In the Mahasatipatthana Sutta ("The Greater Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness," DN 22), in listing various bodily meditation techniques, the Buddha instructs:

"...Just as if a skilled butcher or his assistant, having slaughtered a cow, were to sit at a crossroads with the carcass divided into portions, so a monk reviews this very body ... in terms of the elements: 'There are in this body the earth-element, the water-element, the fire-element, the air-element.' So he abides contemplating body as body internally...."11

In the Visuddhimagga's well-known list of forty meditation objects (kammaṭṭhāna), the great elements are listed as the first four objects.

Sources

In the Pali canon, the Four Elements are described in detail in the following discourses (sutta):

The Four Elements are also referenced in:

In addition, the Visuddhimagga XI.27ff has an extensive discussion of the Four Elements.29

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Or, more literally, "Great Natures." See Rhys Davids & Stede (1921-25), p. 507, entry for "Bhūta."
  2. ^ Note that the Pāli word dhātu is used in multiple contexts in the Pāli canon. For instance, Bodhi (2000), pp. 527-8, identifies four different ways that dhātu is used including in terms of the "eighteen elements" and, as in this article, in terms of "the four primary elements."
  3. ^ These elaborations on the elements can be found in the Majjhima Nikaya discourses nos. 28, 62, 140. See below for more information.
  4. ^ The traditional list of body parts associated with the earth element are the first 19 of 31 body parts — from head hair to feces — identified in the Pali Canon with the contemplation of Patikulamanasikara, with the catch all phrase of "or whatever else internal, within oneself, is hard, solid, & sustained" (trans. Thanissaro, 2003b) added.
  5. ^ The traditional list of water-element body parts are the latter twelve of 31 body parts — from bile to urine — identified in Patikulamanasikara contemplations, with the catch all phrase of "or whatever else internal, within oneself, is liquid, watery, & sustained" (trans. Thanissaro, 2003b) added.
  6. ^ E.g., see Hamilton (2001), pp. 5-6.
  7. ^ Buddhaghosa (1999), Vism. XIV.35, p. 443.
  8. ^ The "space element" is encountered more frequently in the canonical discourses than is the "consciousness element." Examples of discourses that include both of these latter elements are DN 33 (Walshe, 1995, p. 500, para. 16), MN 140 (Thanissaro, 1997c), and SN 27.9 (Thanissaro, 1994).
  9. ^ Hamilton (2001), pp. 5, 35 n. 9. For more information regarding "primary/underived" and "secondary/derived" matter, see the article Rupa.
  10. ^ Dan Lusthaus, "What is and isn't Yogacara." [1].
  11. ^ Walshe (1995), p. 338.
  12. ^ Thanissaro (2003b).
  13. ^ Thanissaro (2006).
  14. ^ Thanissaro (1997c).
  15. ^ Thanissaro (1997b).
  16. ^ Thanissaro (1997a).
  17. ^ Thanissaro (2003a).
  18. ^ Bodhi (2000), pp. 645-50.
  19. ^ Bodhi (2000), pp. 680-1; Thanissaro (2005).
  20. ^ Bodhi (2000), pp. 891-2; Thanissaro (2001).
  21. ^ Bodhi (2000), pp. 1237-9; Thanissaro (2004a).
  22. ^ Bodhi (2000), pp. 1251-3; Thanissaro (1998).
  23. ^ Bodhi (2000), p. 1806.
  24. ^ Bodhi (2000), p. 697.
  25. ^ Bodhi (2000), p. 1006; Thanissaro (2004b).
  26. ^ Bodhi (2000), p. 1010
  27. ^ Bodhi (2000), p. 1014; Thanissaro (1994).
  28. ^ Thanissaro (1997).
  29. ^ Buddhaghosa (1999), pp. 343ff.

Bibliography