The Four Elements: Understanding The Buddha's Teachings on Nonself & Anattā

Understanding how to practically apply the Buddha's teachings of the Four Elements of earth, water, fire, & air.

Everything is made up of Earth, Water, Fire, Air (and Space) Elements – even in the 21st Century

​In this teaching we dive into the details to review the Four Elements of physical formations, what they are, and how they are relevant to 21st century Buddhist practice and cultivating our understanding of anattā, the Buddhist concept of Nonself.

​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.

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. 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.

From 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.
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The Buddha only taught that which is true and beneficial to our striving to extinguish the fuel that feeds samsara.  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. 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.

To summarily correct a general misunderstanding: the teachings on the Four Elements are not a teaching of material science or worldly physics, they are a teaching on the Three Characteristics, primarily the tertiary characteristic of anattā (nonself). As such, these teachings are interconnected with the other two Marks of Existence, those of anicca (impermanence) and dukkha (unsatisfactoriness).

Before we can understand how these elements relate to the teachings of nonself and the Three Marks of Existence (anicca, dukkha, and anattā), it would be helpful to review what they are.

The following excerpts are from Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation of the Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta (The Exposition of the Elements), Majjhima Nikāya 140.14-18:

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The Primary Four Elements

​1. The Earth Element

MN 140 § 14: "What, bhikkhu, is the earth element? The earth element may be either internal or external. 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. Now both the internal earth element and the external earth element are simply earth element. 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."

2. The Water Element

MN 140 § 15: "What, bhikkhu, is the water element? The water element may be either internal or external. 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. Now both the internal water element and the external water element are simply water element. 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 water element and makes the mind dispassionate towards the water element."

3. The Fire Element

MN 140 § 16: "What, bhikkhu, is the fire element? The fire element may be either internal or external. What is the internal fire element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is fire, fiery, and clung-to, that is, that by which one is warmed, ages, and is consumed, and that by which what is eaten, drunk, consumed, and tasted gets completely digested, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is fire, fiery, and clung-to: this is called the internal fire element. Now both the internal fire element and the external fire element are simply fire element. 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 fire element and makes the mind dispassionate towards the fire element."

[teacher's note: from the perspective of ancient Indian physiology, heat in the body causes the body to age, in same way that if you freeze something it tends to preserve it and shield it from decay; just as the heat of the sun can age skin and decay foods/bodies/et cetera, so too, when you thaw a frozen form, it begins to decay—this is what is meant by the Fire Element "ageing" a form.]

4. The Air Element

MN 140 § 17: "What, bhikkhu, is the air element? The air element may be either internal or external. What is the internal air element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is air, airy, and clung-to, that is, up-going winds, down-going winds, winds in the belly, winds in the bowels, winds that course through the limbs, in-breath and out-breath, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is air, airy, and clung-to: this is called the internal air element. Now both the internal air element and the external air element are simply air element. 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 air element and makes the mind dispassionate towards the air element."

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The Fifth Element

​5. The Space Element

MN 140 § 18: "What, bhikkhu, is the space element? The space element may be either internal or external. What is the internal space element? Whatever internally, belonging to oneself, is space, spatial, and clung-to, that is, the holes of the ears, the nostrils, the door of the mouth, and that [aperture] whereby what is eaten, drunk, consumed, and tasted gets swallowed, and where it collects, and whereby it is excreted from below, or whatever else internally, belonging to oneself, is space, spatial, and clung-to: this is called the internal space element. Now both the internal space element and the external space element are simply space element. 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 space element and makes the mind dispassionate towards the space element."

[teacher's note: the Fifth Element of "space" is a reference to spaces such as body holes, cavities, openings, apertures, and the gaps within containers and enclosures, et cetera, and not to "space" as in that which is referred to in the astro-sciences]

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The Five Elements and Nonself (annatā)

The teaching of nonself is clear from these verses: that these elements "should be seen as they actually are with proper wisdom thus: ‘These are not mine, these I am not, these are not myself.’ When one sees them thus as they actually are with proper wisdom, one becomes disenchanted with these elements and makes the mind dispassionate towards these elements."

Through the understanding and contemplation of both the internal and external elements as not mine, not me, not myself, we can begin the process of developing wisdom through clear knowing into the selfless nature of the elements. So when one sees a water element (e.g., blood, semen, urine) as it actually is, with proper wisdom, then one become disenchanted with said water element — breaking up the illusion that connects or self-identifies with that water element ('that I am,' 'that is mine,' 'that is myself'), and in doing so, the mind becomes disconnected from that water element, and begins to recognise all elements as obviously notself.

Drinking a cup of tea, we can contemplate that in this teacup is an external water element.  When it is drunk, it becomes an internal water element.  When it is urinated, it becomes an external water element.  We can consider the impermanent and dependently originating nature of all ingested elements, be they the food that we consume, the air that we breathe, the beverages that we drink, all the way down to the cells and bacteria that arise, exist, and decay within these containers (i.e., bodies) as a result of our consumption behaviours.

By contemplating the internal elements — those that are solid, watery, airy, consumed, and vacant — as Nonself, we can begin the process of uprooting our misplaced need to self-identify with these elements until we no longer identify, associate, or view these elements as a Self at all; and in doing so, become entirely detached from them and free from them entirely — and ultimately becoming free of the dukkha that is created by craving, clinging, and grasping at an impermanent and false sense of Self (e.g., our health, beauty, age, reputation, status, wealth, et cetera; see: the Eight Worldly Concerns, the creators of stress in our everyday life for more on that).

Linking our understanding of these nonself elements to our understanding of their impermanence and dukkha is where the power of this teaching lies.  Cultivating realisations into the relevance of this lesson through considered analysis and single-pointed contemplation can transform our worldview and directly lead us closer to true insights into the nature of how things actually are; that is to say: uprooting the fetter of our ignorance and cultivating wisdom... pañña.

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The Five Elements and
​the Four Noble Truths

While the exposition of these elements and their relationship to anicca and dukkha are beyond the scope of this teaching, at a high-level we can see that the Five Elements relate to the Buddhist notions of the conditioned nature of everything that we experience and so in addition to being anattā, they are also impermanent and dukkha.  How?  The Five Elements are the primary component of Form (rūpa), one of the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination, and "form" is first category of the Five Aggregates (khandhas), and the Five Aggregates are the ultimate foundation of directly experiencing impermanence and suffering (dukkha) as taught within the Buddhist Four Noble Truths.  And anything that is "clung-to," e.g., the Elements repeatedly referenced in the excerpts above, is the very root of dukkha as laid out in the Second Noble Truth.

To truly understand the Four Noble Truths, means understanding that there is nothing that is fit to be clung to, because craving equals suffering, and therefore it is clearly beneficial to cogitate on, and understand, how the Primary Elements are manifestations of clinging since they fall within the boundaries of the Three Characteristics of all conditioned phenomena.

​This type of and contemplative analysis of the Dhamma, coupled with development of ānāpānasati, is how to properly practice the path of Three Higher Trainings of sīla, samādhi, and pañña.  It's how veritable progress toward Nibbāna is  genuinely achieved and realised.

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The Five Elements and Your Practice

​Spending some time learning about the Primary Elements and deeply cogitating on the true nature of their relation to the notion of me, mine, and myself can (and will) have profound effects (if done correctly)—generating authentic realisations that make measurable progress toward spiritual awakening (or further progress along the ariyamagga) possible.

Without deliberately contemplating this teaching, and all teachings like it, that is to say, contemplating the Dhamma-Vinaya, actual progress toward Buddhist Enlightenment will not be possible.

In summary: forsaking a clear examination of this teaching only leads us further down the path of a deluded Self and the continued propagation of our own dukkha.

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For further source references to the Primary Elements within the Pāli canon, and the additional elements of Space and Consciousness (the Fifth and Sixth Elements), please refer to the following discourses:​

• DN 33: Saṅgīti Sutta (Recitations)
• MN 28: Mahāhatthipadopama Sutta (Greater Discourse on the Simile of the Elephant's Footprint)
• MN 62: Mahārāhulovāda Sutta (Greater Discourse of Advice to Rahula)
• MN 140: Dhātuvibhaṅga Sutta (Exposition of the Elements)
• SN 27.9: Dhātu Sutta (Properties)

May your practice benefit from this teaching.