The Concepts of the Four Great Elements, the Six Great Elements, and the Seven Great Elements

The four great elements are earth, water, fire, and wind; they are the seeds that form material form (rūpa). When material form is subdivided, down to the point where it can no longer be divided, that is the paramāṇu of the four great elements—but this is still not the seeds of the four great elements themselves; it is still composed of the seeds of the four great elements.

The seven great elements in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra are: earth, water, fire, wind, space, seeing, and consciousness—the seven factors that constitute the world of sentient beings. The four great elements together with space constitute the material body, the aggregate of form, while consciousness constitutes sentient beings' aggregate of consciousness, aggregate of feeling, aggregate of perception, and aggregate of formations. The "nature of the great elements" (mahābhūta-svabhāva) refers to the functions of the seeds of the four great elements. If one speaks of the six great elements, this refers to earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness, not including the element of seeing. This seeing is also a seed within the tathāgatagarbha, referring to the seeing-nature inherently possessed by the tathāgatagarbha itself, which is called buddha-nature. By removing the element of seeing, the seven great elements can thus be abbreviated to six.

The four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind cannot be further divided, but the material substances composed of the four great elements can be divided; divided to the very end, one arrives at the paramāṇu. Earth is also composed of the four great elements, water is also composed of the four great elements, fire is also composed of the four great elements, and wind is also composed of the four great elements; it is only that the proportional structures of the four great elements differ, thereby forming different material substances.

The paramāṇus of the four great elements are also material forms composed of the four great elements; divided to the point where they can no longer be divided, one arrives at the "particle adjacent to voidness," which is close to nothingness. Even this particle adjacent to voidness is still composed of the four great elements, only extremely subtle. The subdivision of matter into particles adjacent to voidness is not a matter of dispersing and decomposing the four great seeds of the substance into an earth-nature portion, a water-nature portion, a fire-nature portion, and a wind-nature portion, such that the substance dissolves, disappears, ceases to exist, or turns into empty space. Rather, it is the division of the substance itself, divided into extremely subtle particles of matter.

Within the tathāgatagarbha there are the seven great natures of earth, water, fire, wind, space, seeing, and consciousness, all of which are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha. The tathāgatagarbha inherently possesses these seven great seeds; through various conditions they manifest the five aggregates, the eighteen realms, and all the myriad dharmas of the world. Thus all dharmas in the world are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, produced through the combination of the seven great seeds.

Emptiness has no form; it is manifested through form. Empty space has no shape or appearance; where there is no form at the edge of form, it is provisionally named empty space. There is also space within matter, and space within the body; where there is no matter, it is provisionally named space. Space is not truly existent; it is manifested because of form. In the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, the World-Honored One gave an example to illustrate this: when digging the earth to bore a well, once the earth is removed, there is space—space is thereby revealed. It manifests according to karma; as karma manifests, space appears—originally it is the tathāgatagarbha. The seeing-awareness is without knowing, yet exists because of form and space. Seeing form, seeing space, seeing brightness, seeing darkness—this essence of seeing comes from the tathāgatagarbha, not from form and space, nor from brightness and darkness, nor does it arise by itself. Seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are originally the tathāgatagarbha.

For instance, the seeing faculty alone: seeing pervades the entire dharmadhātu; hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching, feeling tangibles and discerning dharmas—wonderful virtues, luminous and pure, pervade the entire dharmadhātu. "Wonderful"—only when it comes from the tathāgatagarbha is it wonderful, endowed with the virtuous nature of the tathāgatagarbha, pervading the dharmadhātu in accordance with conditions, manifesting whenever conditions are present.

Consciousness has no source of its own; it arises falsely due to the six faculties and six sense objects. When the six faculties contact the six sense objects, the tathāgatagarbha produces the six consciousnesses. The six faculties are false, the six sense objects are false, and thus the six consciousnesses also emerge falsely. Why are they false? Because they are produced by the tathāgatagarbha, not originally existent, not real. The tathāgatagarbha delivers seeds of consciousness to the six consciousnesses; only then do the six consciousnesses have their functions and capabilities, and only then can they discern the six sense objects. "Great" refers to the nature of the great elements, the seeds within the tathāgatagarbha; only when the tathāgatagarbha outputs the seeds in accordance with various conditions are the myriad dharmas of the world brought forth.

As for shaped substances such as earth in the world's appearances, they are formed through the combination of the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind. Within earth there are not only the seeds of earth, but also the seeds of water, the seeds of fire, and the seeds of wind. Take a stone, for example: it contains the hardness of earth; striking it produces sparks, showing it has the nature of fire; the occurrence of mudslides shows that stone has the nature of water; stone also contains space within it, which is the nature of space; where there is space, wind exists, and thus there is the nature of wind. All external material substances are generated through the combination of the great-element natures; there is no substance of a single nature alone.

Consciousness is a functional attribute unique to sentient beings; material form does not have it, and therefore material form is called insentient things. "Wonderful" refers to the nature of the tathāgatagarbha—this is what is truly wonderful. Without shape or appearance, yet with so many uses; possessing nothing at all, yet able to produce so many dharmas—true emptiness, yet wondrous existence. He has never left us for a single instant or moment, forever never abandoning us, yet not dwelling together with us, not mixed together with us.