Discussion On The 5 Elements (Pancha Buddha)

Please note: this is a live outdoor recording and audio quality is compromised. In this discussion Josh will guide a meditation of the 5 Maha Pancha Buddhas (elements) and then a discussion on the elements both with in us and also within the world that we interact in and how we can access and harness them. This is an enthrawling lecture on how these elements are both alive within us and alive in the outside world. Hope you enjoy this wonderful lecture.

Transcript

So the Maha Pancha Buddhas,

The five elements,

Earth,

Water,

Fire,

Wind and air or space.

Kind of like Captain Planet,

Except they change space to heart,

Which makes sense.

So we have earth,

Number one,

Prithvi.

P-R-I-T,

Prithvi,

Prithvi.

Interesting sound,

Prithvi,

And you explored this a little bit in your class yesterday.

Prithvi,

What's the experience of earth like?

Grounding,

Stabilizing.

When we touch the earth,

What do we feel?

Held,

Supported.

When we look at a boulder,

What qualities do we feel or see?

Strength,

Power,

Greatness.

Prithvi.

So when we think of the earth element within us,

Within ourselves,

We think of these qualities.

Can I find greater sense of strength in myself?

Greater sense of stability.

Not only connecting to the Prithvi that's external,

The earth that is external,

But also the earth that is internal,

The element of myself that allows me to feel supported,

That allows me to feel grounded.

When you look at dirt or when you pick up dirt and really actually rub it in your hands,

How does it feel?

Nourishing.

If you've ever done that before and let go of inhibitions,

Right,

Of ooh or whatever,

And actually taken dirt and rubbed it in your hands or on your body,

It feels liberating.

Why?

Because it's enlivening.

It's nourishing.

What does earth do?

What does earth do?

It creates life.

Everything grows from where?

The earth.

So the sense of earth within myself,

The creativity that I have within myself to give life to myself and to other because as beings,

What do we do?

We give life.

It mainly exists within the woman,

But without the man,

It can't happen.

This is the Prithvi,

The element of Prithvi.

All these different things taking place.

Strength,

Stability,

Grounding.

If you've ever felt upset or sad and lay on the earth,

Extremely nourishing experience.

What do we find is a fun thing to do when you go on a few dates with someone?

Go to the park.

Lie on the grass.

Why?

Because being together in that experience allows us to feel elated,

Allows us to feel something other than the fluctuations of our mind.

Yeah?

Picnic in the park.

It's very invigorating experience.

Why?

Why can't we have a picnic on the road,

On the concrete?

Yeah.

Great answer.

Why can't we have a picnic in the ocean?

Right?

Correct.

So,

You know,

With tongue in cheek,

The point I'm making is that we do these things,

But we don't always realize why we're doing them.

Why does it feel good to lay out a picnic blanket and spend the day in the park?

Because we're connecting to the earth.

Why does it feel nice to lie on the sand?

We're connecting to the earth.

Pritvi.

Yeah.

Now,

My sense is that it will be better for me to go through all five elements like this.

And as we go,

If you have questions,

Write them down pertaining to whichever element and then at the end we'll have a little bit of space for Q&A.

So that's Pritvi,

Earth.

Second element.

Beautiful Sanskrit.

Appa.

A-P-A.

Appa.

So simple.

But when you hear the sound,

Appa,

It's like a raindrop.

Appa.

It's like the movement of the ocean.

Appa.

A-P-A.

Water.

Water is everything.

There is nothing it isn't.

We are made up of water.

Seventy percent,

Apparently.

Which when you think about it is kind of weird and crazy considering,

You know,

When I look in the mirror I don't see any water.

Right?

I just see skin and bones and do I look good?

Do I not look good?

Does that look good?

Does that not look good?

That's all I see,

Right?

That's all my brain interprets when I'm looking at myself in the mirror.

Yet there's some sort of evidence that we all just jump on to believe that our body is made up of water.

That's crazy.

What happens if we stop drinking water?

We die.

We die from dehydration.

We need water to survive.

It is everything.

There is nothing it is not.

How do we feel when we move to the ocean?

Liberated.

How do we feel when we swim if we don't have fears around swimming or whatever?

Supported.

Safe.

Loved.

Nourished.

Cleansed.

Yeah,

What do we feel when we go in the ocean?

Cleansed.

Clean.

What do we feel like when we have a shower?

Clean.

We can have an extremely negative experience.

Have a shower and we feel like we cleanse ourselves from that experience.

We're not actually scrubbing our skin off,

Although skin is releasing itself every time,

All the time actually.

But there's an energetic effect that takes place when we have a shower.

We feel a cleansing,

A removing.

That is the power of water.

Like Bruce Lee said,

Be like water.

Strong but soft.

Water fills the cup and it moves the mountain.

One of the most amazing elements.

If you've ever seen the ocean angry,

How does that make us feel?

Small.

Reminds us of the true power,

The true existence of nature.

Thunderstorm for those of you that were here last week.

Reminds us that there is something bigger than just our little experience here.

There is something presiding over this universe.

These are the elements.

Appa,

One of the most powerful.

We haven't talked about disaster but when there is a disaster,

Earthquake,

Tsunami,

Forest fire,

Tornado.

Interestingly enough,

They're all the elements.

So when we feel water within ourselves,

What is it that we're experiencing?

What are we looking for or what are we looking to feel or experience?

Adaptability.

What is water?

It's adaptable.

Put it in one cup and it fits.

Put it in a jar and it fits.

Put it in your mouth and it fits.

No matter what you do with it,

It's constantly moving and adapting.

Just like we are.

But are we awake to that?

Because all that we're all actually doing is moving and adapting,

Just like water.

The question is,

Are we trying to contain that water?

Have you ever or can imagine going into a swimming pool and trying to dig the water out?

Or dig to the bottom of the pool without letting it overflow?

Impossible.

We're actually the same.

That's why when we feel cornered,

Nobody likes to be cornered or boxed in.

I'm in a job that I don't like or I'm in a house that I don't like or I'm in a relationship that I don't like.

We don't flourish.

We don't prosper.

What happens?

We go,

I need to break free.

Like water.

Like what?

You take the plastic bag into the ocean and it will burst through it.

Anything that goes in the ocean erodes and opens,

Disintegrates.

It doesn't matter what shape it is.

It doesn't matter what kind of container.

Water is unstoppable.

Unstoppable.

Shapes mountains.

Caves.

That is our potential.

That is the up part within us.

Fluidity but immense power and strength.

The ability to be all of those things at the same time.

That is up part.

Often referred to as a feminine quality,

Feminine trait,

But only because men have lost touch with it.

Not because it is exclusive to women.

Difference between man and woman and masculine and feminine.

We all have masculine and feminine within us.

It's what are we connecting to most.

In the modern world,

The woman now has the most in touch,

Most capacity to be in touch with the fluidity of water.

All you have to do is go to a place like Bali and you see it.

Parts of embodied women who are exploring the watery elements of themselves.

The other side of it is a fear of commitment.

Because the idea tells us,

And we spoke about this a little bit last week in the course.

The idea says I want to be free.

So in order to experience freedom,

I won't commit to anything.

But that's actually the trap.

Because by not being able to commit to anything,

There is no freedom because you can't choose commitment.

And that's,

I'm digressing a little bit,

That's for another day,

Another conversation.

Water.

Next is fire.

Described with two words.

Agni.

A-G-N-I.

Agni.

Or Tejas.

T-E-J-A-S.

Tejas.

I could almost not say anything about fire and you would all already understand.

Fire is?

Why?

Why is fire in every culture?

Every tradition?

Everywhere in the world you go,

Every church there's a candle lit.

Every synagogue,

There's a fire burning.

Every tribe or community or society you go to,

There is ritual around fire.

Interesting to think about that if you haven't already thought about it.

Why?

Fire is the only element that turns manifest into unmanifest.

It takes something that is physical that we can see and dissolves it completely.

Nothing else can do that.

Water is the only thing that comes close but it doesn't do it fully.

Fire for the most part,

Anything that you put in it will dissolve completely.

Including our fear,

Including our stress,

Including our karma.

Karma means actions that bind us,

That we are a slave to.

We have behaved in particular ways and held ourselves to karma from our choices.

Why does fire play such a heavy role in the yoga tradition?

Because it is believed that we can absolve our stress and karma through fire practice,

Through fire ritual.

What is vinyasa yoga?

Fire yoga.

Fire practice.

What are you doing when you practice vinyasa?

Building heat,

As you've most likely experienced this morning.

It is not a cooling,

Grounding,

Soothing,

Restoring practice.

There's some water in it,

Fluidity and movement,

But for the most part,

It is fire building.

What's happening when we're doing that?

It's burning the impurities inside and in the mind.

That's why the yoga tradition holds fire so high in regard because it has the ability not only to externally turn manifest to unmanifest,

But internally manifest to unmanifest.

Techniques building fire from within.

Why is the inversion so powerful?

Because we turn the internal fire of the digestive system upside down.

We have a natural digestive fire.

This in Ayurveda is called pitta,

A natural fire that burns all of our food and impurities and processes and organizes very brilliantly.

When we do inversions,

Headstand,

Shoulder stand,

Handstand when done correctly,

Turns the fire upside down and we burn the parts of ourselves that the fire does not normally have access to.

This is traditionally and energetically why there are inversions in the yoga practice.

Traditionally and energetically.

The digestive fire to burn the impurities that it cannot reach when the body is right side up and gravity is just pushing everything down.

So then what are the elements of fire within ourselves?

And you can almost say these are kind of personality traits we're talking about,

Right?

A sense of fearlessness.

Fire is fearless.

It will rip through any environment.

Always serving its purpose.

Fire is warming,

Which means it is comforting.

If you've ever been cold at the snow and sat by the fire,

It is not only comforting,

But it is giving life.

How else can we die from low temperatures?

I don't know the word I'm looking for.

Hypothermia.

Thank you.

Yeah,

If we don't have heat inside and outside,

We die.

It's not even like maybe you will,

Maybe you won't.

You will.

The body will die.

Why?

Because the element is within us.

The fire is within us.

Now it's not a flame necessarily.

It's not like if we light a fire on the beach,

That's the flame that's within us.

But the element of fire,

The heat is within us.

It's pumping our blood.

It's keeping our blood warm.

It's keeping our heart beating.

It's keeping our digestive system moving.

This is tejas,

Agni,

Fire.

Vayu,

Wind.

Air.

Vayu,

V-a-y-u,

Vayu.

Beautiful sounds,

The elements.

V-a-y-u,

Vayu.

Wind or air.

Again,

There is nothing that it is not.

Without air,

We would die.

What is nature doing?

It's providing air.

What are the plants doing?

They're providing oxygen.

We don't see it,

Right?

Yet we know it's there because science has proven it.

We don't see energetic fields around ourselves,

Yet we don't believe it necessarily.

Interesting to propose,

To think about.

In every moment,

If you desire,

You can feel the air.

Just do this.

Even if there's no air,

You'll feel it straight away.

Now,

What is air?

It's powerful.

It is life-giving.

It is resuscitating that when we feel stressed or when we feel anxious,

All we have to do is breathe.

What did you say?

Go outside.

Go outside.

Get some fresh air.

But what is it?

Why is it that fresh air makes us feel good?

Because it enlivens us.

Air is enlivening.

Vayu is enlivening.

The wind is liberating.

If you've ever stood at the top of a mountain and felt the air,

What happens?

You feel alive.

You feel enlivened,

Invigorated.

You feel a greater sense of self.

These are the qualities of air.

And then,

Of course,

Similar to the other elements,

Extremely powerful.

And destroy a whole city in minutes.

Space.

Akash.

A-K-A-S-H.

Akash.

When you close your eyes and you sense or feel yourself,

What you are feeling is akash.

Space.

Your consciousness.

Your cells in your body.

The atoms that create everything.

Science has now proven that what makes this up and what makes this up and what makes this up is all the same.

Different coming together,

Different patterns to create different looking things.

But at the root of it,

It's atoms and molecules that are not even touching.

They're just hovering next to each other.

And apparently,

In retrospect,

The size of a football field in comparison to our understanding of space.

So then what is it that makes us see this as hard,

This as soft,

This as thick,

This as strong?

Our consciousness.

Our ability to interpret the akash,

The space.

The space in us.

The space around us.

And if you think about it,

We're currently on a planet that is spinning at thousands of miles an hour around the sun.

Yet we would have no idea if someone didn't tell us.

And yet even though we don't know,

We believe it.

Because someone's told us.

But yet when you do yoga and meditation regularly,

This is what the yogis believe,

You experience it.

You experience the akash.

Not only the space in your mind of I'm feeling calm and relaxed now because I'm not so stressed,

But you feel a greater sense of universality.

A greater sense of,

Oh,

I'm not so separate anymore from everything.

I feel connected to the wind.

I feel connected to the earth.

I feel connected to the fire.

Feel connected to my partner.

Feel connected to my friends,

To myself.

This is the akash.

But all there is is space.

And then when you zoom out of earth,

What do you have?

Space.

That's all there is.

It's just in hundreds of millions of miles of space that they still can't figure out where it starts and where it ends.

It's just clusters and clusters and clusters of galaxies.

Upon galaxies,

Upon galaxies,

Upon galaxies.

That's about as much as they can propose.

Some black holes,

Some wormholes.

And in the last 20,

30 years,

Starting to move towards the theories of time and space.

That time is actually not linear.

That time is happening all at once.

We're just experiencing it in a linear fashion.

Yet sometimes we can experience time standing still.

Sometimes we can experience time going really quickly.

It's all the same time though.

What's changing is our consciousness.

How am I experiencing this time?

How am I experiencing the experience?

I have a question.

It's always when I'm on vacation and I experience a lot,

It seems like the time is going slower.

Your level of presence defines your level of consciousness.

How present you are is how conscious you are.

If you are not conscious,

You're not aware of things as they're happening.

Which means in your mind,

They're happening very quickly.

When you become more conscious and more aware,

You become aware of things as they're happening.

Feels like they're happening slower or in real time.

Mindless.

Not present.

Not conscious.

The more we meditate,

The more we become still.

The more we understand the nature of ourselves,

The slower life becomes.

The more we realize that time is actually not linear.

This is a little bit of a trip to wrap your mind around.

Particularly if you haven't had the experience.

If you've had LSD before,

It will give you that experience.

That everything feels like it's happening at once.

The whole universe is happening to you.

All that drug is doing is inducing a state that's already happening within you.

It's just introducing a chemical to invoke it.

Akash space.

That which presides over everything.

There is nothing that it is not.

All the elements.

Now the Rishis,

The sages,

The great masters believe that with a refined state of consciousness,

Not only can we understand these elements within ourselves and enliven these elements in ourselves from a personality perspective,

More strong,

More fluid,

More vast,

More expansive,

More grounded,

More settled,

But we can also learn to control the Pancha Buddhas.

Now if I was there I would show you,

But I'm not there yet.

We can begin to create and shape matter.

This is the theory.

That the mind goes,

What?

I don't know if I believe that.

Because we live in our constructed ideas of reality and that challenges our view of reality.

Just like the internet did at one point.

So we've gone from super subtle to super gross.

From the most subtle idea of Pancha Buddha,

Which is this element within myself,

To the most gross idea of Pancha Buddha.

I can actually feel it.

I can touch the fire.

I can feel the heat.

I can touch the water.

And everything in between.

Okay questions.

How do you know what you are?

Well you're all of it.

You're all of them that make you.

It's all happening at the same time.

From a subtle perspective,

Where do I feel like I need to place more attention on?

Do I need to place more attention on Prithvi,

On earth to enliven the qualities of earth within myself?

Do I need to place more attention on Agni,

Tejas?

Do I need to remove and burn things that are no longer serving me?

That are holding me down?

You see them all the time.

They collect the garbage and they burn it.

I'm not saying it's good,

But they do it.

That's what the Agni is doing.

It is removing that which is no longer relevant.

Now nature will do it for you if you don't,

But we want to get in the game of beating nature to it.

So we're always,

We're seeing what's coming and we're going,

Okay that's what's coming towards me so I need to employ this tactic now.

Rather than constantly hitting our head and going,

Oh crap I wish I saw that one coming.

So it's all there already within you.

And we have practices to help us see what is not enlivened.

Have I been spending too much time enlivening fire?

Too much vinyasa yoga?

Have I been spending too much time at CrossFit or at the gym?

Enlivening that sense of strength and fire and not enough water,

Not enough fluidity,

Not enough nurture of air,

Of space,

Not enough in touch with my senses.

What do I need right now?

Maybe I need to rest and give myself that rest.

Does that make sense?

It's not that we'll be clear or they'll all be aligned,

It's that we'll be in touch with each of them and we'll know which of them is required in which moment.

What element of myself is required?

Sometimes when I'm teaching,

Fire is required.

How many times do I have to tell you?

Don't crank your neck.

She knows it the most,

Yeah.

Sometimes water is required.

This was my idea of a conversation and now it's going this way but I'm adaptable.

Sometimes earth is required if a student needs support.

Sometimes they need a grounded opinion or a grounded view.

Sometimes wind is required to just be but then also move.

So it's not that,

It's that you're in touch with them all and you know how to use them all for their purposes.

You're not going and doing the same exercise routine that's just building your fire and then you've got digestive issues or whatever.

You know we've spoken about this stuff before or that you're doing two watery practices.

I see it in people all the time.

You're doing too much water stuff,

Not enough grounding.

See that in Bali a lot too.

Now everything takes,

The yin yang is perfect.

The white and the black but a little bit of white and a little bit of black in each.

Are you thinking about it consciously then?

So if you're in a situation like you're teaching and you recognise what to do but in a conscious way connecting it with the elements?

Not from an elemental perspective but I've been practicing for seven to ten years now.

So there is a process of refining the awareness and through learning about all these things at different points the mind categorises everything.

So I'm not conscious of it but I'm aware of you know this person needs X,

Y and Z right now.

I'll give them that but I don't look at it from an elemental perspective but that doesn't mean that's not what it is.

So through meditation things you become aware of what you're lacking or might need and then tell your practices accordingly?

Correct.

Which will change kind of in the weeks we call them.

Correct.

We want to have our base practice which is what you both know that's our foundational practice that never changes.

That is always there because that is constantly bringing us deeper and deeper into connection with ourself.

Even when you reach enlightenment my teachers who are enlightened they still practice every day.

It never becomes a point that you stop practicing.

Then you can start to employ practices and techniques to lead you more into a place of greater grounding or greater fluidity or whatever it is.

We would add that on to our practice.

Make sense?

Yes,

I was thinking about how you are aware of what you are lacking.

I mean that one that we did is a good example.

That one that we just did is obviously a good example of being what you can't really connect to or feel.

It's just how you become conscious.

Yeah,

Finding teachers.

The word guru now in the modern world is a little,

It's been a little muddied up,

The word guru.

It's actually a beautiful word.

What guru means,

Now remember it's not what it translates to,

It is the sound that is expressive of.

Guru is the remover of darkness.

Traditionally that's what guru meant.

Why do we have gurus?

Why do we have teachers?

To illuminate the light where there is darkness.

Where we don't yet have the capacity to shine our own light on something.

I don't have the ability yet to recognize that within myself.

And that's why I always say,

You guys have heard it so much now,

Having a teacher is so important.

If you are even in the slightest bit interested on the spiritual path,

It will be a much more challenging and lonely route doing it on your own.

Finding a teacher is the best way to do it.

So important.

Make sense?

And then going on retreats and attending workshops and doing all that kind of stuff as well.

But finding a teacher that feels right and then when your work is done with that teacher,

If they are a good teacher they will refer you on to somebody else.

And that's the game we are in.

I still have my teachers and the ones that I had two or three years ago are different now to have now.

But it's a constant process of what am I trying to refine?

Where do I need the most assistance with?

Okay.

No last burning questions?

Stuff to think about.

Lots to think about.

Yeah.

Good.

Well,

If more questions and stuff come up,

Feel free to find me and chat to me.

I'll be around at lunch now.

And that concludes our session.

You're welcome.

Reviews

Loved it Josh 🤩 perfect insight and humour!

Good discussion of the elements

Thank you for opening my eyes! This is one of the most enlightening talks that I have had the pleasure to receive. Your description and application of the 5 natural elements to my life is contemplative and exciting at the same time. I don’t know if I will be able to attend a retreat at which you are speaking, but I think that I would benefit greatly from your teachings. Spirit has opened my mind to these concepts and I am grateful 🙏🏻