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The Earth Element

The Earth Element is yin/yang in its most equal and balanced state. The Earth is the foundation on which we establish value-ness of our world, and thus gives the concrete sense of things into likes, dislikes and "don't cares."  In other words, it is the aspect of consciousness or personality where we physically encounter the world around us through our senses, and then through the sensations that arise we begin to construct a solid idea of “self” based on our experience of that encounter. It is the first step in defining a sense of “self”, or “I am”, “I am not” based on what we encounter and how it “feels” to us. 

When we allow ourselves to experience the “self” as something expanded, beyond our own individual needs, pain, experience and allow the “self” to extend beyond ourselves to become all sentient beings we can relax and enjoy the abundance provided to all by the Tao, God, etc. The Earth Element in its highest state gives rise to compassion and this aspect of personality is called the “I” pronounced “EE”.

It has been interesting to me that in my study of the Taoist five element associations and the Tibetan Buddhist five element associations I have not come across a mention of shame. I believe that it fits in this area. In a conventional reality a little separateness is a good thing. It helps one to be inspired to create our visions and dreams. Worry occurs when a part of ourselves feels so separate from everything else that we do not feel that we are supported by anyone or anything. Shame, I believe is often at the root of this complete separateness. A part of us believes that it is bad, flawed in some way. This part is not connected to the other parts of ourselves and of course not anything on the outside.

A knotting sensation in the gut area is often associated with worry and when we are not feeling connected to the world around us this gives rise to worry. In Chinese medicine this stuck energy can affect the spleen which is responsible for extracting energy from the food that we eat and sending that chi up to the lungs. This is the beginning of a process called the transformation of chi. In Western physiology we think of internal organs breaking down foods until it becomes soluble to the body as sugars, proteins, etc.  In Chinese medicine the transformation of chi is how the internal organs break down foods and the air that we breathe into energy that is soluble to the body. The Video of the Healing Sound https://youtu.be/3dFUYhM1ofU

Associations:

·         Color – yellow

·         Sound – singing

·         Odor – fragrant

·         Emotion – worry

·         Attitude – empathy, compassion

·         Taste – sweet

·         Sense – taste

·         Sense organ – mouth/lips

·         Climate – perfect autumn day

·         Fortifies – muscles

·         Energetic tendency – stabilizing

·         Vital organ – spleen

·         Hollow organ – stomach

·         Season – Indian summer or period of 10 days between each season or phase of day