What Is Matter Composed Of?

All material form is composed of the great seeds of earth, water, fire, wind, and space. When the water element seed occupies a larger proportion, liquid water is formed. Water is aggregated from water molecules, and water molecules contain hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms; within each atom there are also protons, neutrons, atomic nuclei, and other even more minute particles of matter. Each of these minute particles is composed of the four great seeds of earth, water, fire, and wind, plus the space element seed. In this way, there are gaps within the particles, so that the particles can move along spatial orbits. Because the four great seeds and the space element seed are arranged and combined differently, the particles formed are different, and their modes of movement are also different.

Water contains the earth element, which has hardness, and therefore water has the property of obstruction; water has temperature, and the coldness or heat of water is the fire element; water has fluidity, which is the function of the wind element; and within the molecules of water there is the space element, there are gaps. If water is heated, the arrangement of the four great seeds and the space element seed within the particles and their modes of movement are altered, and the physical properties of water change—liquid water becomes gaseous water. If the temperature of water is lowered below zero degrees, the arrangement of the water particles and their modes of movement must also change, and their physical properties are transformed—liquid water becomes solid ice.

The four great seeds do not transform into one another. No matter what the conditions, the water element seed is forever the water element seed; it will not become the earth element seed or the fire element seed, nor will it become the wind element seed or the space element seed. It is only that the ordering of the various seeds mixed together changes, and the structure of the seeds changes, so that their physical properties are altered.

The seven intrinsically existing great seeds (earth, water, fire, wind, space, seeing, consciousness) within the tathāgatagarbha cannot be changed by any external conditions whatsoever, nor can the tathāgatagarbha change the nature of the seeds. The water element will not become the earth element—there is no such principle in the Buddhadharma; otherwise, the material world would fall into disorder, and the seeds within the tathāgatagarbha would also fall into disorder. If the water element could become the earth element, then there would be no water element in the tathāgatagarbha, only six great seeds. With one seed missing, the physical bodies of sentient beings could not be generated, material form could not be generated, there would be no matter in the world, and thus there would be no world at all. In that case, no worlds would exist, and the worlds of the ten directions would not exist either.