The Concept of the Four, Six, and 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 four great elements' ultimate particles (paramāṇu), but these are still not the seeds of the four great elements themselves; they are 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 and the aggregate of form, while consciousness constitutes sentient beings' aggregate of consciousness, aggregate of feeling, aggregate of perception, and aggregate of volitional 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, it means 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 the six great elements.

The seeds of the four great elements — earth, water, fire, and wind — cannot be further divided, whereas the material substances composed of the four great elements can be divided, and when divided to the very end, what remains is the "neighboring minute particle" (a particle adjacent to the infinitesimal). 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 ultimate particles of the four great elements are also material forms composed of the four great elements; when divided down to the "particle adjacent to the void" (aṇu-parāmāṇu) that can no longer be divided, they are close to nothingness. Yet even this particle adjacent to the void is still composed of the four great elements, only extremely subtle. When matter is subdivided into particles adjacent to the void, it is not that the seeds of the four great elements within matter are dispersed and decomposed into an earth-nature portion, a water-nature portion, a fire-nature portion, and a wind-nature portion, such that the matter disintegrates, ceases to exist, or turns into empty space. Rather, it is the division of matter itself, divided into extremely minute particles of matter.

Within the tathāgatagarbha there are the seven great-element 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-element seeds, and through various conditions they manifest the five aggregates and eighteen realms as well as the myriad dharmas of the world. Thus all dharmas in the world are the nature of the tathāgatagarbha, produced by the combination of the seven great-element seeds.

Emptiness (śūnyatā) 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 material substances, and there is also 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 — it is fundamentally the tathāgatagarbha. The seeing-awareness has no knowing of its own; it exists because of form and space. Seeing form, seeing space, seeing brightness, seeing darkness — this essence of seeing comes from the tathāgatagarbha, does not come from form, space, brightness, or darkness, nor does it arise by itself. Seeing, hearing, awareness, and knowing are fundamentally the tathāgatagarbha.

For example, take just the seeing faculty: its seeing pervades the entire dharmadhātu; hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching, the awareness of contact and the awareness of knowing — their wondrous virtues are luminous, pervading the entire dharmadhātu. "Wondrous" — only when it comes from the tathāgatagarbha is it wondrous, endowed with the virtues of the tathāgatagarbha's nature, pervading the dharmadhātu in accordance with conditions, manifesting whenever there are the conditions.

Consciousness has no source of its own; it arises falsely through the six kinds of faculties and 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 arise falsely. Why are they false? Because they are produced by the tathāgatagarbha, not originally existent, not real. The tathāgatagarbha delivers the seeds of consciousness to the six consciousnesses; only then do the six consciousnesses have their functions and capacities, 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 born.

As for shaped material substances such as earth in the appearances of the world, they are formed by the combination of the seeds of the four great elements — 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. For example, a stone contains the hardness of earth; striking it produces sparks, showing that 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 by the combination of the great-element natures; there is no material substance of a single nature alone.

Consciousness is a functional attribute unique to sentient beings; material forms do not have it, and therefore material forms are called insentient things. "Wondrous" refers to the nature of the tathāgatagarbha — only this is truly wondrous. Without shape or appearance, yet possessing so many uses; having nothing at all, yet able to produce so many dharmas — true emptiness, yet wondrous existence. He has never left us for a single second or instant; He never abandons us, yet He is not located within us, nor mixed together with us.