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Mahābhūta is Sanskrit and Pali for "great element". [1] However, very few scholars define the five mahābhūtas in a broader sense as the five fundamental aspects of physical reality.
In Hinduism's sacred literature, the "great" elements (mahābhūta) are fivefold: aether, air, fire, water and earth. [2] [3] See also the Samkhya Karika of Ishvara Krishna, verse 22.
For instance, the Taittirīya Upaniṣad describes the five "sheaths" of a person (Sanskrit: puruṣa), starting with the grossest level of the five evolving great elements:
In the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, the deities is identified as the source of the great elements:
The same Upanishad also mentions, "When earth, water fire, air and aether arise, when the five attributes of the elements, mentioned in the books on yoga, become manifest then the yogi's body becomes purified by the fire of yoga and they are free from illness, old age and death." (Verse 2.12). [6]
In Buddhism, the four Great Elements (Pali: cattāro mahābhūtāni) are earth, water, fire and air. Mahābhūta is generally synonymous with catudhātu, which is Pāli for the "Four Elements." [7] In this, the Four Elements are a basis for understanding that leads one through unbinding of 'Rupa' or materiality to the supreme state of pure 'Emptiness' or Nirvana.
In the Pali Canon, [8] the most basic elements are usually identified as four in number but, on occasion, a fifth and, to an even lesser extent, a sixth element may also be identified.
In canonical texts, the four Great Elements refer to elements that are both "external" (that is, outside the body, such as a river) and "internal" (that is, of the body, such as blood). These elements are described as follows:
Any entity that carry one or more of these qualities (attractive forces, repulsive forces, energy and relative motion) are called matter (rupa). The material world is considered to be nothing but a combination of these qualities arranged in space (akasha). The result of these qualities are the inputs to our five senses, color (varna) to the eyes, smell (gandha) to the nose, taste (rasa) to the tongue, sound (shabda) to the ears, and touch (sparsha) to the body. The matter that we perceive in our mind are just a mental interpretation of these qualities.
In addition to the above four elements of underived matter, two other elements are occasionally found in the Pali Canon: [11]
According to the Abhidhamma Pitaka, the "space element" is identified as "secondary" or "derived" (upādā). [12]
While in the Theravada tradition, as well as in the earliest texts, like the Pali Canon, rūpa (matter or form) is delineated as something external, that actually exists, [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] in some of the later schools, like the Yogachara, or "Mind Only" school, and schools heavily influenced by this school, rupa means both materiality and sensibility—it signifies, for example, a tactile object both insofar as that object is tactile and that it can be sensed. In some of these schools, rūpa is not a materiality which can be separated or isolated from cognizance; such a non-empirical category is incongruous in the context of some schools of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. In the Yogacara view, rūpa is not a substratum or substance which has sensibility as a property. For this school, it functions as perceivable physicality and matter, or rūpa, is defined in its function; what it does, not what it is. [19] As such, the four great elements are conceptual abstractions drawn from the sensorium. They are sensorial typologies, and are not metaphysically materialistic. [20] From this perspective, they are not meant to give an account of matter as constitutive of external, mind-independent reality. [21] This interpretation was hotly contested by some Madhyamaka thinkers like Chandrakirti. [22]
The Four Elements are used in Buddhist texts to both elucidate the concept of suffering ( dukkha) and as an object of meditation. The earliest Buddhist texts explain that the four primary material elements are the sensory qualities solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility; their characterisation as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively, is declared an abstraction – instead of concentrating on the fact of material existence, one observes how a physical thing is sensed, felt, perceived. [23]
The Four Elements pertinence to the Buddhist notion of suffering comes about due to:
Schematically, this can be represented in reverse order as:
Thus, to deeply understand the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, it is beneficial to have an understanding of the Great Elements.
In the Satipatthana Sutta ("The Greater Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness," DN 22), in listing various bodily meditation techniques, the Buddha instructs:
In the Visuddhimagga's well-known list of forty meditation objects ( kammaṭṭhāna), the great elements are listed as the first four objects.
B. Alan Wallace compares the Theravada meditative practice of "attending to the emblem of consciousness" to the practice in Mahamudra and Dzogchen of "maintaining the mind upon non-conceptuality", which is also aimed at focusing on the nature of consciousness. [25]
In the Pali Canon, the Four Elements are described in detail in the following discourses ( sutta):
The Four Elements are also referenced in:
In addition, the Visuddhimagga XI.27ff has an extensive discussion of the Four Elements. [43]
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Mahābhūta is Sanskrit and Pali for "great element". [1] However, very few scholars define the five mahābhūtas in a broader sense as the five fundamental aspects of physical reality.
In Hinduism's sacred literature, the "great" elements (mahābhūta) are fivefold: aether, air, fire, water and earth. [2] [3] See also the Samkhya Karika of Ishvara Krishna, verse 22.
For instance, the Taittirīya Upaniṣad describes the five "sheaths" of a person (Sanskrit: puruṣa), starting with the grossest level of the five evolving great elements:
In the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad, the deities is identified as the source of the great elements:
The same Upanishad also mentions, "When earth, water fire, air and aether arise, when the five attributes of the elements, mentioned in the books on yoga, become manifest then the yogi's body becomes purified by the fire of yoga and they are free from illness, old age and death." (Verse 2.12). [6]
In Buddhism, the four Great Elements (Pali: cattāro mahābhūtāni) are earth, water, fire and air. Mahābhūta is generally synonymous with catudhātu, which is Pāli for the "Four Elements." [7] In this, the Four Elements are a basis for understanding that leads one through unbinding of 'Rupa' or materiality to the supreme state of pure 'Emptiness' or Nirvana.
In the Pali Canon, [8] the most basic elements are usually identified as four in number but, on occasion, a fifth and, to an even lesser extent, a sixth element may also be identified.
In canonical texts, the four Great Elements refer to elements that are both "external" (that is, outside the body, such as a river) and "internal" (that is, of the body, such as blood). These elements are described as follows:
Any entity that carry one or more of these qualities (attractive forces, repulsive forces, energy and relative motion) are called matter (rupa). The material world is considered to be nothing but a combination of these qualities arranged in space (akasha). The result of these qualities are the inputs to our five senses, color (varna) to the eyes, smell (gandha) to the nose, taste (rasa) to the tongue, sound (shabda) to the ears, and touch (sparsha) to the body. The matter that we perceive in our mind are just a mental interpretation of these qualities.
In addition to the above four elements of underived matter, two other elements are occasionally found in the Pali Canon: [11]
According to the Abhidhamma Pitaka, the "space element" is identified as "secondary" or "derived" (upādā). [12]
While in the Theravada tradition, as well as in the earliest texts, like the Pali Canon, rūpa (matter or form) is delineated as something external, that actually exists, [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] in some of the later schools, like the Yogachara, or "Mind Only" school, and schools heavily influenced by this school, rupa means both materiality and sensibility—it signifies, for example, a tactile object both insofar as that object is tactile and that it can be sensed. In some of these schools, rūpa is not a materiality which can be separated or isolated from cognizance; such a non-empirical category is incongruous in the context of some schools of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. In the Yogacara view, rūpa is not a substratum or substance which has sensibility as a property. For this school, it functions as perceivable physicality and matter, or rūpa, is defined in its function; what it does, not what it is. [19] As such, the four great elements are conceptual abstractions drawn from the sensorium. They are sensorial typologies, and are not metaphysically materialistic. [20] From this perspective, they are not meant to give an account of matter as constitutive of external, mind-independent reality. [21] This interpretation was hotly contested by some Madhyamaka thinkers like Chandrakirti. [22]
The Four Elements are used in Buddhist texts to both elucidate the concept of suffering ( dukkha) and as an object of meditation. The earliest Buddhist texts explain that the four primary material elements are the sensory qualities solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility; their characterisation as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively, is declared an abstraction – instead of concentrating on the fact of material existence, one observes how a physical thing is sensed, felt, perceived. [23]
The Four Elements pertinence to the Buddhist notion of suffering comes about due to:
Schematically, this can be represented in reverse order as:
Thus, to deeply understand the Buddha's Four Noble Truths, it is beneficial to have an understanding of the Great Elements.
In the Satipatthana Sutta ("The Greater Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness," DN 22), in listing various bodily meditation techniques, the Buddha instructs:
In the Visuddhimagga's well-known list of forty meditation objects ( kammaṭṭhāna), the great elements are listed as the first four objects.
B. Alan Wallace compares the Theravada meditative practice of "attending to the emblem of consciousness" to the practice in Mahamudra and Dzogchen of "maintaining the mind upon non-conceptuality", which is also aimed at focusing on the nature of consciousness. [25]
In the Pali Canon, the Four Elements are described in detail in the following discourses ( sutta):
The Four Elements are also referenced in:
In addition, the Visuddhimagga XI.27ff has an extensive discussion of the Four Elements. [43]