Earth, Water, Fire and Air
Experiential Aspects of Elements

As the history books tell it, the Greek philosopher Empedocles (493–433 BC) was the first to propose the four classical elements as a set: earth, water, fire, and air. He called them the four "roots" of our universe.

Interestingly, the same four elements appeared—and pretty much at the same time—to musing minds not only in Greece but in both India and Tibet, and there often along with the added fifth element of space or void.

Me, I first came across these four elements in middle school and I still remember thinking how primitively stupid were these early Greeks, who knew nothing about molecules and atoms and such basic physical truths that even a kid like me knew all about (yes, pride knows no age).

Having concluded that the Greeks didn’t know what they were talking about, I didn’t ponder these four elements for another ten years or so, not until I came across The Incredible String Band and Robin Williamson’s wonderful song “Koeeoaddi There” (on “The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter” album—remember Long Playing records, LPs?), where I could read (the sleeve) and hear (in glorious and magical stereo) these gorgeous lines:

“Earth, water, fire and air

Met together in a garden fair,

Put in a basket bound with skin.

If you answer this riddle,

If you answer this riddle,

You'll never begin.”

This is the brilliant Robin blending in a sweet koan Greek philosophy, Christianity, and Science to a truth beyond the answerable. Ah, yes. I loved that.

Then I didn’t ponder these four elements for another 40 or so years; not until I set out, and for real this time (I had flirted with Buddhism in my late teens but was then severely sidetracked by Scientology) on my Buddhist path.

Only soon to discover that not only the Greeks but the ancient Vedantists and Buddhists also subscribed to the “myth” of the four (or five) elements.

Everything, they proposed, is made up of these elements. This was treated as common knowledge. Oh, man, how do I deal with this? I mean, even though I’m by now in a very-much-wanting-to-believe-the-Buddha mode, how do I reconcile this with what I still hold as proven and more accurate science? Really. For I know that earth, water, fire, and air are not what science calls elements. Not even close.

Unresolved for the time, I put this question on hold, to be pondered and resolved some other day.

Then, about a year ago, I came across Burgs (I don’t know whether this is his first or last name, but he goes by this single moniker), a brilliant Buddhist teacher who in his “Flavor of Liberation Volume One,” delivers a truly inspired breakdown of these four elements and so answers the question, how do you tell them apart, how do you identify them?

He teaches:

The Element of Earth is identified and experienced as hardness/softness, roughness/smoothness, and heaviness/lightness.

The Element of Water is identified and experienced as cohesion/flowing.

The Element of Fire is identified and experienced as temperature—heat/cold (warmth/coolness).

The Element of Air is identified and experienced as motion, as expansion/contraction. Air is also the absence of movement or stillness.

Then he goes on to say, “Know these qualities directly within the mind. This is direct perception of your object, free of discursive thought.” (My italics).

These elements, in other words, are what you experience.

Scales fell from my eyes. I now saw with clarity that the four (or five, when you include space or void) elements are what the spirit can experience. And come to think of it, I have never experienced a molecule, or an atom, or a quark, or anything much smaller than a kidney stone (another story, that).

The earth element is the word for what we experience as hard or soft, rough or smooth, heavy or light; water is that which we experience as cohesion or flow; fire that which we experience as hot or cold; and air that which we experience as expanding or contracting. Those are qualities that we can and do experience. They are qualities we can know and recognize.

And, of course, this falls beautifully in line with the Buddha’s main message about life: it is what we experience. Not what we think or dream or hope or postulate, but what we experience.

Then, musing some more on these elements, one day geysering out of the blue, I saw the parallel between their ancient view and our current one:

It is heat (fire) that determines whether a scientific element is a solid (earth), a liquid (water), or a gas (air). And in that recognition, the four ancient elements, for me, shook hands with science and all was well with my world.

Still is.

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