Matter 1 — The four great elements

In Buddhist analysis of physical reality, all material phenomena are understood as composed of the four great elements (*mahābhūta*): earth, water, fire, and air. These are not elements in a chemical sense but qualities or properties that describe the basic characteristics of matter as directly experienced.

• Earth (*paṭhavī-dhātu*): The property of solidity, extension, or resistance — the quality of hardness, softness, heaviness, or lightness.
• Water (*āpo-dhātu*): The property of cohesion, fluidity, or holding things together.
• Fire (*tejo-dhātu*): The property of temperature — heat or cold — and transformative processes like aging or decay.
• Air (*vāyo-dhātu*): The property of motion, expansion, and contraction — movement and vibration.

These elements combine in varying proportions to give rise to all material forms. Even the human body is seen as a composite of these four principles, constantly shifting and never stable. Through meditative contemplation, the practitioner observes these properties directly in bodily sensations — not intellectually but as lived, immediate experience.

Such analysis dismantles attachment to the body as “self.” What seems to be a unified, personal entity is revealed as a temporary configuration of impersonal processes — like a pile of elements momentarily held together by conditions. Seeing this undermines pride, fear, and attachment, fostering wisdom and dispassion.

Ultimately, the contemplation of the four elements leads to the deep realization of emptiness: that both mind and body lack any enduring essence, and that liberation lies in letting go of all identification with form.

“This body is but a heap of elements — impermanent, fragile, a bubble upon the stream.”
— Samyutta Nikāya 22.95 (paraphrased)