This is an interesting, important text, one of my absolute favourites, and merits some ongoing reflection. On first reading it seems strange – living in Ireland it is obvious we live on an earth, with plenty of water and wind! Obviously we come and go, either on holidays or as in relocating from country to country. It must mean something deeper about the causes of suffering.  There is a lot of evidence that people can benefit fairly immediately from some of the centering and calming practices that are found in meditation and mindfulness. They bring a certain release from the stresses and suffering of everyday life. However, texts like this suggest that real, lasting  and full liberation comes from coming to a felt knowledge of the dynamics beneath the human capacity for stress. It is somehow related to a stepping out of the continual movement of the mind towards or away from experiences –  what is referred to as the “shackles of constant becomings” – to a place that observes all comings and goings without judgment.

There is that sphere of being where there is no earth, no water, no fire, nor wind;

this sphere of being I call neither a coming nor a going nor a staying still,

neither a dying nor a reappearance; it has no basis, no evolution, and no support:

it is the end of suffering

The Buddha