Exercise 08: Interdependence of Body and Universe

Further, in whichever position his body happens to be, the practitioner passes in review the elements which constitute the body: 'In this body is the earth element, the water element, the fire element, and the air element. '

This exercise shows us the interrelationship of our body and all that is in the universe. It is one of the principal ways of witnessing for ourselves the nonself, unborn, and never-dying nature of all that is. Seeing things in this way can liberate and awaken us. The sutra teaches us that we should be aware of the presence of earth, water, fire, and air elements in our body. These are the Four Great Elements (Sanskrit: mahabhuta), also referred to as the realms (Sanskrit: dhatu). The earth element represents the hard, solid nature of matter. The water element represents the liquid, permeating nature. The fire element represents heat, and the air element represents movement. The Dhatuvibhanga Sutra and the second version of the sutra on mindfulness in this book both refer to six elements - the two additional elements are space (Sanskrit: akasha) and consciousness (Sanskrit: vijiiana)

 Our bodies are more than three-fourths water. When the practitioner looks deeply in order to see the water in his body, not only does he see the liquid, permeating nature of the blood, sweat, saliva, tears, and urine, but he also sees the water element in every cell of his body. There are clouds in the body, because without clouds, there can be no rain and we will not have any water to drink, or grains and vegetables to eat. We see earth in us, earth as the minerals in our body. We also see that earth is alive in us because, thanks to Mother Earth, we have food to eat. We see air in us, air representing movement. Without air we could not survive, since we, as every other species on Earth, need air to live.

The practitioner observes his body mindfully to see all that is in it and to see the interrelated nature of himself and the universe. He sees that his life is not just present in his own body, and he transcends the erroneous view that he is just his body. In the book The Sun My Heart, the author refers to the sun as our second heart, a heart which lies outside our body, but which is as essential for our body as the heart inside our body. When the heart inside the body ceases to function, we know very well that we will die, but we often forget that if the heart outside our body, the sun, ceases to function, we will also die immediately. When we observe mindfully the interdependent nature of our body, we see our life outside our body, and we transcend the boundary between self and nonself. This practice of mindful observation helps us go beyond such limiting concepts as birth and death.

~From Transformation and Healing by Thich Nhat Hanh