The Elements

The elements broadly apply to our experience within the Pancha Maya construct as found in the ancient Yoga source of the Tittiriya Upanishad. The Pancha Maya Koshas are both objective descriptions and subjective metaphors.

Objectively they trace a stage in the creation process from pure consciousness (space), to solid form (earth), and they describe the relative movement of things in the external world: degrees of motion, fixity, and mass.

As subjective metaphors, they describe our innermost experiences: deep sensation patterns, and the emotional and psychological states of mind coincident with those experiences.

It is understood that when a certain quality of thought or action predominates our disposition, a certain admixture of the elements is present.

From this perspective, we are a dance of mass (earth), feeling and flow (water), heat and subtlety (fire), thought and primordial sensation (air), and pure awareness / consciousness (space).

Image attribution: Frank McKenna (Unsplash)