Chih-I refers to the Four Elements as snakes, he wasn’t the first to do so, yet it is his work we are exploring. An explanation for the metaphor of four snakes can be found in the Suvarnaprabhasa Sutra which offers a parable of a man who fleeing from the two bewildering forms of life and death spies a rope (life) and climbs down into the well of impermanence. In this well are two mice who night and day gnaw on the rattan rope. The platted rope is of four sides and on each of the sides is a snake which is trying to poison our fleeing man. These four snakes are the four elements of the man’s physical nature. As is this were not bad enough, below him are three fire breathing dragons who are not only trying to burn him to a crisp they are also trying to grab him in their talons. Above he sees two elephants, representing darkness and light, have come to the mouth of the well.
The poor wretched man is in complete despair when suddenly a bee flies by and drops some honey into the man’s mouth. The honey represents the five desires. The man eats the honey and completely forgets his peril.
As I read this I thought of the children playing in the burning house. They are so engrossed in their play-things they are oblivious to the fire that is raging around them as the house burns. And there too the fire is not the only hazard as there are numerous beasts and poisonous animals infesting the walls, floors, and all the spaces of the house. It almost sounds like they were playing video games and had been sucked into the vortex of the game experience.
Another reference to snakes being the Four Elements can be found in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra which offers an exercise for us to consider.
Exercise: “…contemplate the body as like a box [containing] earth, water, fire, and wind like four poisonous snakes. They see poison, touch poison, feel poison, gnaw on poison. All sentient beings encounter these four poisons, and mourn their life. The four elements of sentient beings are also like this.”
This skin bag of bones is fundamentally suffering due to its existence. This can be a rather depressing thought, for some it may even be frightening. We tend to want our lives to be more than this, to mean more than this, to be more important than this. And that is our suffering. Like our friend in the well we have tasted the honey and all too easily forget our peril. In our rush to level up in the video game of life we forget our mortality and our impermanence. We seek a harmony of the Four Elements that can only be temporary at best no matter how much we desire it to last forever.
What keeps this from being depressing, at least for me, is the knowledge that the impermanence is a promise and guarantee, it is the thing to count on. Knowing that can be liberating in that there is no surprise. Also keeping in foremost in mind, our impermanence, motivates me to not forget the value of even a single moment of life and the infinite possibilities to fill the moment with value.
I’m sure we’ve all hear stories of people who have gone into a doctor’s office feeling reasonably well for an annual exam and during that exam find out they have perhaps less than six months to live. I’ve known people in the hospital when I worked as a chaplain who are admitted for a condition which they think will be quickly cured and find they have only days to live. Or in some instances a lingering headache is actually a brain hemorrhage and death follows in hours.
Our lives, this box containing the snakes of Four Elements, is frequently taken for granted. Many people rarely factor in their mortality as they navigate their lives daily or hourly. Yet death is perhaps only a breath away.
Exercise: Do this lightly! Durning your next meditation, or even in this moment pay attention to your breath noting that the out breath can be considered the breath of death. The out breath is guaranteed to us as our last breath, the air that will be expelled from our lungs and never be replace. As you breath in feel the joy of life enter your lungs. That in breath is not guaranteed to any of us. We are only a breath away from our mortality. Do this lightly!
Subscribe to my blog post newsletter
[amazon_link asins=’1979530815,1511592907,1978003862,1979814023,1975689763,0692257470,B01FIWRYL2,147834198X,1492886041,1508534780′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’ryusho0a-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’97fbe168-a3f2-11e8-9539-6d448c750861′]
