The fourth of the five carita-viśodhana practices, corresponding to the māna-carita (conceit-temperament) practitioner. Analysis of the six elements — pṛthivī (earth), ap (water), tejas (fire), vāyu (air), ākāśa (space), vijñāna (consciousness) — each treated in inward (ādhyātmika) and outward (bāhya) aspect. The body-parts list, the piṇḍa-saṁjñā (lump-perception) dissolution, and the temperament rationale for why conceit yields to elemental analysis (the body that conceit clings to disclosed as a temporary aggregate of impersonal elements).
What is the analysis of elements?
Namely, the six elements: the earth element, water element, fire element, wind element, space element, and consciousness element.
The earth element is twofold: inward and outward. The inward earth element: whatever in this body, internally, individually, is hard or harsh, taken up [into experience]. The outward earth element: whatever externally is hard, has gone to hardness, has come to be taken up.
What is the inward earth element specifically?
Hair of the head, body hair, nails, teeth, dust, dirt, skin, flesh, bone, sinew, vein, kidney, heart, spleen, lungs, intestines, mesentery; stomach contents, bowel contents, liver, feces. This is called the inward earth element.
What is the outward earth element specifically?
Wood, clods, gravel, pebbles, trees, mountain-peaks — and anything else of this kind. This is called the outward earth element.
What is the water element?
The water element is twofold: inward and outward.
What is the inward water element?
Whatever, internally, individually, is liquid or has gone to liquidity; whatever has gone to the water element and been taken up. Tears, sweat, saliva, mucus, fat, lymph, marrow, grease, bile, phlegm, pus, blood, brain, cranial fluid, urine. This is called the inward water element.
What is the outward water element?
Whatever externally is water or has gone to water; whatever is moist and has come to be taken up. Springs, lakes, ponds, rivers, fountains — and anything else of this kind. This is called the outward water element.
What is the fire element?
The fire element is twofold: inward and outward.
What is the inward fire element?
Whatever, internally, individually, is fire or heat, has gone to fire or heat, has come to be taken up. Namely: the fire in this body by which the body is heated, fevered, burned through; by which what is eaten, drunk, chewed, and tasted goes to proper digestion with ease; and by which, when in excess, a person comes to be described as 'burning, burning.'
What is the outward fire element?
Whatever externally is fire or heat, has gone to fire or heat, has come to be taken up. That which men obtain from fire-sticks together with cow-dung powder; that which, having arisen, burns even a village, even part of a village, a city, part of a city, a country, part of a country, an island, a thicket, a forest, wood, grass, or cow-dung — burning these, it goes on. And anything else of this kind.
What is the wind element?
The wind element is twofold: inward and outward. The inward wind element: whatever, internally, individually, is wind or has gone to wind — that which is lightness, motion, come to be taken up. Furthermore, in this body there are: upward-going winds, downward-going winds, side-resting winds; belly-resting winds; back-resting winds; [Conjectural]: wind-stretching winds (vāyv-aṣṭhīlā, vātāṣṭhīlā); [Conjectural]: razor-pippal-blade winds (sharp, stabbing pains); the in-and-out breaths; winds following the limbs and minor limbs.
What is the outward wind element?
Whatever externally is wind or has gone to wind — that lightness and motion, come to be taken up. There are externally: eastern winds, southern winds, northern winds, western winds; dust-bearing winds, dustless winds, small winds, great winds, miscellaneous winds, hurricane (vairambha) winds, wind-circle winds. There is a time when a great mass of wind has accumulated and topples even tree-tops, even wall-tops, even mountain-peaks; having toppled them, it goes on without appropriation. There are beings who seek [wind] using a corner of the robe, a palm-leaf fan, or a bellows. Such, and anything else of this kind, is [the outward] wind element.
What is the space element?
The cavities of the eye, ear, nose, mouth, and throat; that by which one ingests, that into which one ingests, that through which what is ingested passes; that through which it flows out below; and anything else of this kind. This is called the space element.
What is the consciousness element?
Eye-consciousness; ear-, nose-, tongue-, body-, mind-consciousness; That, further, is mind (citta) and mind-consciousness (mano-vijñāna). This is called the consciousness element.
The conceit-conduct person, attending to this analysis of elements, dispels the perception of the body as a unified lump. He also obtains the perception of unattractiveness; and no longer becomes elevated [proud] through [the body]. He attenuates the conceit and purifies the mind from conceit-conduct. This is called the analysis of elements — for the conceit-conduct person.