Meditations on Inter-Being with the Four Elements

The average human body is 60% water. The brain is composed of 70% water and the lungs nearly NINETY PERCENT water!!! To say that we inter-are with water is an understatement. This current "form" that is named "James" would not exist without mountain glaciers, rivers, lakes, clouds, soft peaceful rain and the great oceans. The oceans are the cradle of life on Earth.

Last night I ate corn as part of my evening meal and I could not have enjoyed that nourishing food without water.

Water is recycled and reborn just as all things. There will never be anymore water on the planet then there is right now but that is fine because of evaporation. Evaporation is the process through which rain is reborn in its myriad forms to benefits all things. Yin and yang.

The rich, grounding soil of the Earth is also apart of our bodies through mostly ingestion of plants. Minerals are critical to our survival. Minerals that come from the soil such as: iron, zinc, magnesium, calcium, sodium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, chlorine. Our bodies contain about 6 percent minerals but that 6 percent is very important to our survival. All of the bodies functions rely upon minerals. Ever taste your blood? Tastes like iron doesn't it? So we can not survive without all forms of iron. Therefore we can say that we inter-are with: Meteorites from space, car components, housing components, railroads, bridges, containers and steel that is partly made with iron. Quite simply iron is the backbone of modern society. And iron products could not exist without man power so this is another example of being inter-connected and dependent upon people that we may not ever meet or know!!
Now let's talk a bit about fire. This is my element being a Sagittarius. The Sun is one of the first things perhaps that we think of when we think of fire and heat. The Sun has been worshiped for eons because of it's power and energy. It seems that there isn't an atom in our body that hasn't be forged in the furnace of the sun. All life is dependent upon it's heat.

Human life only thrives within a narrow range of temperatures. Without heat our body begins to shut down. First our extremities and then our major organs and eventually death. Heat is also critical to release waste through perspiration. However, (as we know with the other elements) heat can not exist alone. It needs fuel to keep going and that fuel is the food we ingest. Therefore (as I mentioned) we are interconnected to the Earth in which our tasty food is grown in, rain that waters our food and helps it grow. As well as oxygen that is turned into carbon dioxide and used by the plants to grow.

Then there are volcanoes. Many scientists now believe that volcanoes helped create life on Earth. Not to mention that volcanoes created our atmosphere, our oceans and are critical in releasing the heat from the core of the Earth. They add to our continents and create islands. Thus, we wouldn't have beautiful island paradises' to visit like the Hawaiian islands without these violent fire throwers. They also leave behind dark, rich soil that produce scrumptious vegetables and fruits. So in a way, we can say that the blood in our veins is no different then the lava that pumps through the veins of a volcanic flow!! How cool is THAT?!! Especially since our bodies share many of the same minerals as those in the liquid Earth we call lava.Then we have air. As we all know oxygen is the breath of life. You can not have oxygen without plants and you can not have plants without heat/Sun/fire. Remember my mention of iron? Well, oxygen in the air is bonded with iron(a mineral from the Earth/plants). This helps the oxygen get into our bloodstream. So even the elements are dependent upon each other!! We could not have rain without air pushing storms in all directions. Thus we can see that wind is nothing short of an extension of our breath. So when we breath in and out during our meditation we should be aware that we are breathing in and out all the air that swirls around on our great planet.

It doesn't take much reflection to realize the truth in the Buddha's words that there is no independent, inherent, "self." Emptiness is form and form is emptiness. I think perhaps those few words contain the essence of Buddhism.

So I would like to take this moment to thank-you for being apart of this being labeled, "James." I couldn't be without you all. I am so very grateful and happy to know that I am apart of the Great Project with you all that is constantly evolving growing, dying, renewing and moving throughout space and time. Honor be to the infinite number of Buddhas. Honor be to the infinite number of Bodhisattvas. Honor be to you--an integral cell in my body.

Namaste dear ones.

~Peace to all beings~