Definition: the great elements in Sanshrit What is the original text on the 4 elements of earth, water, fire and wind (or air)? This is from Hinduism but the Buddhist speak of achieving the emptiness of the 4 elements as the end to suffering. Can someone enlighten me on this from their practices of Zen or Chan (禅)?
Zen sees sanshrit as one of the primary causes of dukkha(suffering). Edit: fix spelling, I can barely spell English, I should know better than to use Pali without checking the spelling.
Sanskrit is the primary written language of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism developed from Vedic Sanskrit (1200-600 BC). The Shaolin Monastery was built in 495 AD as a special place to do the translation of Sanskrit into Chinese. My interest is only the great elements or the 4 classical elements. Is was suggested that the components of the 8 trigrams were developed from these 4 classical elements around 3000 BC. There might be a common origin of the 4 classical elements, as there is similar idea in Greece and Egypt.
What are the four classical elements? I know a titchy bit about Chinese five element theory, but I can't remember if one element was added at a later date to bump them up to five, and if so which one it was.
The 4 classical elements are earth, water, fire and air in Buddhism. Hindus added the aether or void as the 5th element later on but I have no idea when. The Bagua components are sky, marsh, fire, thunder, wind, water, mountain, Earth.
