Editing Classical element (section)

===Buddhism===
{{anchor|Buddhist elements}}
{{Main|Mahābhūta}}

Buddhism has had a variety of thought about the five elements and their existence and relevance, some of which continue to this day.

In the [[Pali literature]], the ''[[mahabhuta]]'' ("great elements") or ''catudhatu'' ("four elements") are earth, water, fire and air. In [[Early Buddhist schools|early Buddhism]], the four elements are a basis for understanding suffering and for liberating oneself from suffering. The earliest [[Buddhist texts]] explain that the four primary material elements are solidity, fluidity, temperature, and mobility, characterized as earth, water, fire, and air, respectively.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: a New Translation of the Majjhima Nikaya |publisher=Wisdom Publications in association with the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies |year=1995 |isbn=0-86171-072-X |editor-last=Bodhi |location=Boston |chapter=28, Mahāhatthipadopamasutta |oclc=31331607}}</ref>

The [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]]'s teaching regarding the four elements is to be understood as the base of all observation of real sensations rather than as a philosophy. The four properties are cohesion (water), solidity or inertia (earth), expansion or vibration (air) and heat or energy content (fire). He promulgated a categorization of mind and matter as composed of eight types of "[[kalapas]]" of which the four elements are primary and a secondary group of four are colour, smell, taste, and nutriment which are derivative from the four primaries.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Thera |first=Narada |title=A Manual of Abhidhamma |publisher=Buddhist Missionary Society |year=1956 |pages=318–320}}</ref>{{efn|{{harvp|Thera|1956|pages=318–320}}: "the atomic theory prevailed in India in the time of the Buddha. Paramàõu was the ancient term for the modern atom. According to the ancient belief one rathareõu consists of 16 tajjàris, one tajjàri, 16 aõus; one aõu, 16 paramàõus. The minute particles of dust seen dancing in the sunbeam are called rathareõus. One para-màõu is, therefore, 4096th part of a rathareõu. This para-màõu was considered indivisible. With His supernormal knowledge the Buddha analysed this so-called paramàõu and declared that it consists of paramatthas—ultimate entities which cannot further be subdivided." "ñhavi in earth, àpo in water, tejo in fire, and vàyo in air. They are also called Mahàbhåtas or Great Essentials because they are invariably found in all material substances ranging from the infinitesimally small cell to the most massive object. Dependent on them are the four subsidiary material qualities of colour (vaõõa)., smell (gandha), taste (rasa), and nutritive essence (ojà). These eight coexisting forces and qualities constitute one material group called 'Suddhaññhaka Rupa kalàpa—pure-octad material group'."}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Anuruddha |title=A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma: the Abhidhammattha Sangaha of Ācariya Anuruddha |publisher=Buddhist Publication Society |year=1993 |isbn=955-24-0103-8 |editor-last=Bodhi |location=Kandy, Sri Lanka |page=260 |oclc=33088951 |quote="Thus as fourfold the Tathagatas reveal the ultimate realities-consciousness, mental factors, matter, and Nibbana."}}</ref>

[[Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu|Thanissaro Bhikkhu]] (1997) renders an extract of [[Shakyamuni Buddha]]'s from Pali into English thus:
{{blockquote|Just as a skilled butcher or his apprentice, having killed a cow, would sit at a crossroads cutting it up into pieces, the monk contemplates this very body — however it stands, however it is disposed — in terms of properties: 'In this body there is the earth property, the liquid property, the fire property, & the wind property.'<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kayagata-sati Sutta |url=http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.119.than.html |access-date=2009-01-30 |website=[[Majjhima Nikaya]] |page=119 |via=accesstoinsight.org}}</ref>}}

[[Tibetan Buddhism|Tibetan Buddhist]] medical literature speaks of the {{IAST|pañca mahābhūta}} (five elements) or "elemental properties":<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |title=The Tibetan Book of the Dead |publisher=[[Viking Press]] |others=Introductory commentary by the [[14th Dalai Lama]] |year=2005 |isbn=0-670-85886-2 |edition=First American |location=New York |pages=502 |translator-last=Dorje |translator-first=Gyurnme |translator-last2=Coleman |translator-first2=Graham |translator-last3=Jinpa |translator-first3=Thupten}}</ref> earth, water, fire, wind, and space.<ref name=":0" /> The concept was extensively used in [[traditional Tibetan medicine]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gurmet |first=Padma |year=2004 |title='Sowa – Rigpa': Himalayan art of healing |url=http://nopr.niscair.res.in/handle/123456789/9345 |journal=Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=212–218}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Bigalke |first=Boris |date=2013-01-11 |others=University Hospital Tuebingen |title=Behavioral and Nutritional Therapy in Patients With Coronary Artery Disease According to Traditional Tibetan Medicine Protocol |url=https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00810992}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Tibetan Buddhist [[theology]], [[tantra]] traditions, and "astrological texts" also spoke of them making up the "environment, [human] bodies," and at the smallest or "subtlest" level of existence, parts of thought and the mind.<ref name=":0" /> Also at the subtlest level of existence, the elements exist as "pure natures represented by the five female buddhas", Ākāśadhātviśvarī, Buddhalocanā, Mamakī, Pāṇḍarāvasinī, and Samayatārā, and these pure natures "manifest as the physical properties of earth (solidity), water (fluidity), fire (heat and light), wind (movement and energy), and" the expanse of space.<ref name=":0" /> These natures exist as all "qualities" that are in the physical world and take forms in it.<ref name=":0" />