Four Elements Meditation

This is a meditation on the Buddha’s teachings of the ‘four elements’—earth, air, fire, and water—and how experiencing our body through these elements and the direct feelings that arise—hardness, softness, warmth, coolness, liquidity, etc.—can help us loosen identification with images, concepts, and narratives about the body that can entangle us in suffering. The meditation begins with a short introduction on working with these four elements and the potential benefits.

Transcript

This is a talk and meditation on the Four Elements meditation.

The origin of this meditation is in the earliest teachings of the Buddha.

It comes out of the Buddha's,

Really his central teaching on mindfulness,

What's called the Satipatthana Sutta,

Often called the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness,

Or the Practice of Attending with Mindfulness.

And the Buddha spoke of mindfulness as a direct path to liberation.

This particular teaching of the Buddha has been called the most important teaching of the Pali Canon.

The Pali Canon is the first written teachings of the Buddha,

Written down in the Pali language,

Which is very close to Sanskrit,

About 500 years after the death of the Buddha.

And really all of the Buddhist teachings of mindfulness can be found in this discourse or this talk by the Buddha,

As well as all of the secular mindfulness teachings that you may be familiar with.

Now these four elements are earth,

Water,

Fire,

And air.

You're probably familiar with them because they were known or seen in ancient times as what everything was made of.

Now the idea and the practice of this meditation is not in any way to show that everything is made up of these elements.

We have a much more scientifically sophisticated understanding or cosmology in relation to what constitutes matter,

You know.

But what this teaching is intended to do is to help us experience the body through these elements.

So experiencing the hardness,

The softness of the earth element,

The fluidity,

Liquidity,

Consistency of the water element,

The warmth,

The coolness,

The temperature of the fire element,

And the sense of movement and space of the air element.

When we experience the body in this way through these four elements,

It can help us to let go of the sense of my body and any clinging to some identification with our body.

You know,

The body is being beautiful or the body is being ugly or wanting it to be like this or wanting it to be different than it is.

And just to experience hardness,

Softness,

Warmth,

Coolness,

Liquidity,

Et cetera,

These four elements.

And the key is really the question,

Is this helpful to you?

You know,

So is it helpful to practice in this way?

Does it help you particularly to let go of,

You know,

The kind of conceptual understandings of the stories or narratives that we're telling ourselves about our bodies,

About other people's bodies,

About how they should be?

The Buddha said in the Pali,

He said,

�Ehipasiko,

See for yourself.

� So just see what will happen,

What happens when you work with this teaching in practice in your own experience.

You know,

It's like anything else,

It's a training.

I would encourage you not just to go by doing this meditation or a similar teaching on the four elements once or twice,

But really explore it in your own experience.

I found it to be an extremely valuable way of kind of loosening identification with that sense of,

You know,

How the body should be,

You know,

How we want it to be,

Et cetera.

So what we'll do now is we will get into,

We'll do a meditation on these four elements,

The earth element,

The water element,

The fire element,

And the air element.

So I invite you to just get into a comfortable posture,

Whether you're sitting down or lying down,

Whatever's comfortable to you,

And just allow yourself to arrive and settle,

Just to be here with whatever you are experiencing right now.

Maybe helpful to take a few longer,

Deeper breaths to help relax the body,

You know,

If you're caught up in any kind of tension or stress,

To take some deeper breaths can help you come into more of a sense of ease,

A sense of balance.

You might find it helpful to just for a moment put your hand on your chest or around the heart or on your belly and just feel the body,

You know,

In a very direct way,

You know,

Feeling the,

Perhaps the warmth of your hand,

The pressure of your hand,

The chest of the belly rising and falling and the hand doing the same as the chest and the belly rise and fall.

I often begin a meditation just by consciously inviting a smile to the face,

And again that can help us shift the sense of from maybe we're caught up in something and then just the smile sending a direct,

Sending a message to the brain and to the nervous system that we can be at ease,

You know,

Perhaps thinking of a loved one or pet or a child,

Just inviting the image in and letting the body perhaps soften and relax.

So whatever helps you to really be here as fully as you can right now for these,

You know,

Ten minutes or so.

Just feeling the breath coming in and leaving the body as you breathe in and breathe out.

Letting the breath be a focus or anchor for your attention if it's helpful,

Particularly if the mind is apt to kind of spin off into the future or the past or something going on somewhere else,

Just to let yourself come back to the body,

Come back to the breath.

This moment just as it is,

As Dorothy Hunt says,

This moment,

Peace is this moment without judgment.

This moment in the heart space where everything that is is welcome.

Peace is this moment without judgment.

This moment in the heart space where everything that is is welcome.

And so whatever is present for you right now,

See if you can meet it with kindness,

With acceptance,

With care,

And without judgment.

Nothing that you're experiencing right now is wrong.

It's just what's here.

It comes out of previous causes and conditions.

And if you can meet it just as it is,

Then it doesn't need to be a problem to you.

It can just be tightness or just be sadness.

And that's what's here right now,

And just making room for it,

Letting it come and go in its own time.

Let it come,

Let it be,

Let it go.

And when you're ready,

We'll move into these four elements,

Beginning with the earth element.

As I mentioned,

The earth element is associated with hardness,

Softness,

Roughness,

Smoothness,

Heaviness,

Lightness,

This kind of spectrum,

And how we experience it directly in our body.

Also feeling where your buttocks or your thighs contact the seat or the cushion or whatever you're sitting on or lying on.

This is the earth element.

That sense of pressure,

The hardness,

Sometimes softness.

And just let your teeth,

Your upper and your lower teeth touch each other.

You can feel that hardness as the teeth and the enamel touches,

That sense of hardness.

This is the earth element.

If you can feel your elbows or your knees or your heels or your knuckles touching something,

You can feel probably the earth element there.

So the hardness of the seat,

Maybe the softness of your clothing on your skin,

Or maybe the roughness of the clothing,

This is the earth element.

The hardness of the floor where perhaps your feet are touching and pressing down on the floor.

And just to be aware of the earth element in the world.

A tree,

Feeling touching a tree or even poking the bark of a tree.

Feel the earth element.

Feeling your feet pressing down on the pavement as you walk.

Again this is the earth element.

So just pausing for a moment or two to bring awareness to this earth element and where you experience it.

You know,

In your direct experience right now.

So whatever you're noticing that has that quality of hardness,

Softness,

Roughness,

Heaviness,

Lightness,

How is it to experience it in terms of this earth element?

Does it help in any way to do that?

And just be curious.

You don't have to answer that question definitively right now,

But just be curious.

And when you're ready moving to the water element which is associated with liquidity,

With flowing,

Perhaps with stickiness,

You know the stickiness of the liquid around the eyes that allows the eyes to move about and not,

You know,

Grate against the eyelids and the area around the eyes.

And the water element in mucus,

In saliva,

Maybe the water,

The saliva on your tongue,

In your mouth,

The pulsing of blood through your veins,

Maybe particularly around your heart.

If there's any liquid in your stomach,

Maybe you've had a cup of tea or coffee or a glass of water or juice recently and you can experience that sense of liquidness,

Liquidity in the belly.

Maybe if your bladder is full right now,

You can experience the urine in the bladder.

And it's,

We're told by science that our bodies are made up of 50 to 60 percent water.

So this whole body,

More than half is made up of water.

And maybe as you,

As I spoke of saliva or mucus,

There might be,

You know,

Some tightness around that.

These are not terms we,

You know,

Often use in daily discourse.

They're kind of little bit,

Not quite taboo,

But almost in that direction.

And just to notice if that's present,

That can also be experienced as that tightness is again the earth element or likely to be the earth element as the kind of the body goes into more,

You know,

Defensive mode.

Oh,

I don't like that.

So again,

Just noticing and does it help to create a sense of kind of letting go of identification,

More of a sense of dispassion,

A dispassionate approach to your experience.

And again,

Just pausing to experience the water element in your body.

What do you notice?

And now moving to the third of these elements,

The fire element.

And this is associated with temperature,

The heat of the body,

Maybe the warmth or coolness in different areas of the body,

Different temperatures,

The cool air,

The coolness of the air as you breathe in,

And the warmth of the breath as you breathe out.

This is the fire element.

Maybe in your stomach you might feel a sense of warmth there,

You know,

As the digestive juices work on the last thing you've eaten,

The last meal or snack that you've had.

This is really the fire element at work,

You know,

Creating the sense of warmth.

You can experience the temperature of the air around you,

The coolness of the air on your skin if you're in an air-conditioned room,

Perhaps the warmth of the air if the room is hot or you're sitting outside.

This is the fire element,

The fire element.

And again,

Just pausing to let you experience this.

Where do you experience it?

In your body right now.

Maybe you feel it in your cheeks.

Maybe when you remember something you've said or done that you feel a bit embarrassed about,

Perhaps you feel your cheeks warming up.

Think of this rather than thinking of it as embarrassment or feeling ashamed.

To think of it as,

Or to experience it as,

This is the fire element.

It's not in any way a denial of the emotion or the mind state.

We're not trying to say they're not there.

But just what is it to look through this particular way of looking,

This particular lens?

That's really what these teachings are offering,

A particular way of looking,

A lens for our experience.

And then finally moving to the fourth of these elements,

The air element.

We perhaps experience this most noticeably with the air,

With the breath coming in and going out of our body.

The air element,

Breathing in,

Breathing out.

Maybe feeling the air,

Breathing in as the stomach expands,

The lungs expand.

The sense of movement,

Vibration,

Feeling the air element in the nostrils or in the mouth or in the lungs.

Feeling the air element around you,

You know,

The air if you're in a,

The air in the room as it kind of moves through the space if there's air conditioning or outside just the breeze.

Again,

This is the air element.

And just taking a moment to experience that.

How do you notice that or do you notice that in your body?

So whatever you're experiencing,

See if you can experience it in terms of these four elements.

The earth element,

The water element,

The fire element and the air element.

You don't need to be exact.

You don't need to get caught up in which category does this go in.

But just notice what feels closest in that moment.

Could be more than one.

It could be the earth,

The air element and the fire element at the same time.

You know,

The body feels warm if you feel embarrassed but also maybe tightens up,

You know,

So you've got the fire element and the earth element,

Maybe other elements too.

And you can experience emotions in this way as well through these four elements.

So say for example,

You're experiencing sadness or grief.

You can ask,

What do you tend to notice in terms of these four elements?

It's quite likely and certainly in my experience,

You'll experience some perhaps teariness around your eyes.

This is the water element.

Maybe there's a fluttering or a trembling in the chest or the heart area.

This is perhaps more the earth element.

And the question,

An important question is,

Does this change the way you experience this emotion,

The emotion of sadness or of grief?

Does it change it at all?

You know,

It's easy when we're feeling sadness to get caught up in the story of,

You know,

I'm sad about this or this is the reason or I'm mourning this or this never happens to me,

That kind of narrative.

And when we come down to the water element or the earth element say,

We're coming down and we're experiencing that emotion in a much more direct and visceral way.

So what happens when you experience the body in this way through these four elements?

Is it helpful to you?

That really is the key question.

It's not that you should be experiencing the body in this way.

It's just really a way of looking.

There's certainly I and many others have found very helpful through my life,

My meditation practice and people really for 2500 years.

So it has a very strong pedigree if you like,

You know,

Of practice over centuries,

25 centuries people have been practicing this meditation.

So it's I think an encouragement to really explore this.

Is it helpful to you?

That's really the question.

Does it lead to greater well-being?

Does it lead to letting go?

Does it lead to dispassion?

Does it lead to letting go of any of the stories in our mind that can lead us to suffering?

So I hope you found this short talk and meditation helpful and I encourage you to practice it yourself.

You know,

Maybe re-listen to this meditation or other elements that,

Other teachings of this Four Elements Meditation from other teachers.

See how it is for you.

See if this is helpful for you.

Thank you for taking the time to listen and to practice together with this meditation.

Reviews

I’ve been looking for this Elements Meditation for a while. I’m glad I found it. This is a wonderful guidance into the four elements of the Pali Canon of Buddhism. Enjoyed immensely. Very relaxing and informative.

This particular meditation about the four bodily qualities can help lead us to a direct, visceral, and sublime encounter with the true nature of our emotions. I especially appreciated the use of shame as an example of how we might experience emotions differently.
So that we more easily let go of them.

Many thanks Hugh, I found this very helpful and will continue with 4 elements meditation. Blessings to you. 🙏

Hi,
Really helpful for being in the body and witnessing one's experience. I have used it whilst feeling aggravated at a meeting. I was able to return to being centered without hating the bosses whose calculating approach I felt triggered by.
🙏🏼 Many blessings to you. 🕊

Always so clear and carefully explained, I will definitely do more. Thank you 🙏

Very helpful, thank you 🙏🏻

Thank you Hugh - This is very helpful .🙏

helpful and interesting. Calm voice expressing curiosity. I like the well expressed motivation, which to me worked as an invitation to step into this meditation and stay connected throughout it's course.

Thank you so much. This was beautiful and well explained and so very helpful. 🌸🙏

Very nice, thank you.

I will always remember the depth of this meditation. Nameste

Have always loved The Four Elements meditation. Thank you for your version. I practiced as I took my morning walk.

Fascinating pathway for mindfulness of the very elements from which our bodies are made, exploring each category is profound. One can then sense the consciousness that keeps it all glued together! Many thanks.