Elements are who we are

we are made of elements – Buddhism says our troubles come from thinking we are a separate ego, a permanent separate ego – this element teaching shows us we are not that – and, we’re still here –

let’s imagine our bodies as a hollow space – surrounded by nature – you don’t have to be clear about what’s in nature – just the sense, we are surrounded by nature – this is true wherever we are – even in the cities – everything is part of nature – there’s nothing that is not part of nature – there’s nothing that is not made of elements – that arise in the great cosmic space mother element – imagine that too – you are an empty space surrounded by nature – it’s all arising in the great cosmic vast emptiness primordial mind –

around you, you find rocks and earth and other earthy things – feel the nature of earth element things – hills, mountains – solid, weighty immovable – or moving very slowly – mountains move slowly – get a feel for the type of energy the earth is – 

feel it in your own body – in the bones and solid muscles, teeth – and in your emotional life – the firm stable frameworks in your life – hopefully not too stuck -stable and supportive is ideal – your earth activities – food – repetitive activities – feel how they are all the same energy as the rocks around you – moving as you –

you are the same elemental forces as what’s around you – slightly different forms – every grain of sand is its own form – you are a form with earth in it – same earth – we are not separate from nature – earth is not just what worms move around in – the flow, the primordial flow of the element earth takes shapes such as what the worms are in – or your bones – get a feel for this, not just in your head – feel that as your physical emotional makeup – feel the energies moving in your body space – as elemental forces –

we’ll move to water – what watery things have you got in your natural environment that you can see or feel – is it sea, streams, clouds rain – in nature each elemental force is in all sorts of forms – depending on how it’s combined with other forces – bogs is combining water and earth – mist is water floating in the air – 

feel in our bodies blood – feel the blood like the sea – like rain, it’s the same water – same elemental force – fluid – not having a shape of its own – taking the shape of what’s around – in your body it takes the form of your body – the blood and the artery arteries contain it – it’s the same water – 

there are many waters in your body – spit, gastric fluids, urine, water in your eyes – they’re all the elemental force of water – feel its qualities – sensitive, movable, responsive – moving – usually, slowly-ish unless propelled by being in a waterfall – 

feel how your emotional waters are not separate either – they’re water element in emotional shapes – flows in the body – you might feel inside the body a lot of rainbow flows flowing around – that’s fine too –

now feel the nature of the fire element – each of these elements has a distinct nature – what’s the nature of fire – both heat and cold – it’s temperature, fire is – temperature – around you there is heat and cold – in nature, the sun – even on a cold day you have the sun, even if you can’t see it, obscured by water – it’s bringing heat –

inside your body, feel the heat – the same heat as the sun, not in the same form – the same elemental force keeps us all – every being on this earth is kept alive by

the balance of these elements – not too much heat, not too little –

fiery emotions, intense emotions, anger – inspiration creativity – energies that rise upwards – energies that are directed – fast moving energies –

this is who we are – where is ego now? – where is that separate, permanent self – that brings us suffering – as we try to maintain our separateness – we all share these basic forces of our nature –

air comes in and out of our body with the breath – blows around the world – in our mental functioning air is our nervous system and our flow of thoughts – we think thoughts are so separate from everything else – thoughts are often absorbed in trying to maintain that separate ego – oh I have to have this, I can’t have that – feel your thoughts like winds – the movement of winds and breezes – sometimes gentle breezes, sometimes thunderstorms –

this is who we are – hopefully we can maintain the balance of these forces enough that we can feel somewhat balanced – if things go out too much, if there’s too little heat or too much heat or whatever, we cease to operate as separate beings – separate in the sense of this shape here – the elements go on – and become other things – form into new shapes – 

every moment we are a new shape – feel that in your energy field – we are not permanent – every moment there’s a bit more earth or a bit less earth or a bit more water – things flow together differently – when you put more earth in, the water goes soggy – put more fire in and everything heats up and starts moving faster – constant change of elemental balances – that is what we are –

oh I’m so special – I can do this and that and I can’t do the other and I’m no good at this – it’s just balancing the elements – I’m not any more special – everybody has this constant flow and adjustment – feel it in your body and around you 

it all arises in great vast emptiness – that’s the third thing that’s harder to define – Buddha says we suffer from thinking we’re a separate and permanent ego – also a soul, a separate soul we think we are – we are not a separate soul – we all arise in this great soulful spaciousness – the fifth element – which is nothing – yet it feels soulful – we share it – we all arise together – all the flows of elements that are bugs and worms and people and mountains – 

all arise in the grand soulful great mother – who is also awareness, primordial awareness – my awareness is not separate either – nothing is – it might feel like it because we walk around as a separate thing with a bit of skin around us – we think we’re looking out from our eyes and in some ways we are – not because we are separate souls – can you feel that – I am a shape – a combination of elements dancing in space – dancing in the space element –

space is like great mother – who contains space as well – get the feel of that – I arise in space, three dimensions – behind that or containing that is a bigger sense of space which has no time and space – is beyond space and time – time and space arise within her – feel that – my elements move in time and space – yet the container has no time and space – just is – when we get very calm we can feel that –

it is all love – all the elements – all the space – is love – nature has a goodness – not a goody-goody goodness – a pure nature –  

 elements are who we are ox 240116 tr ed