It goes like this:
go inward → pay super close attention to what you find → allow it to be there → go deeper → notice what is under that → do it again → and again → allow that too → don’t get all emotional or intellectual about it → let it be
Meditation on the elements is one way in
Earth, water, fire, air, and space — these are the building blocks of our embodied form. They shape the physical body, but they also shape our inner life. They are not just “out there.” They are here. They are us.
We tend to recognize them as structural — bones, fluids, heat, breath, space.
But what we often miss is this:
Consciousness is also form
Thinking, feeling, sensing, tasting — all of it has structure and shape. All of it!
Your thoughts.
Your loves.
Your resistances.
Your ideas about who you are.
All of it is form.
And all of it is constantly changing.
Rising, falling, shifting, dissolving, reforming.
Most of the time, we are pulled around by this movement — identified with it, reacting to it, and unconsciously shaped by it — never seeing that there is more.
As important as the elements are, they are only part of the story.
Exploring the elemental layers of self through meditation
By exploring the elemental layers of ourselves, we begin to see ourselves more clearly. The inner rising and fallings of our elemental selves become more, rather than less, conscious.
And in that seeing, something important happens:
We gain choice.
Choice in how we perceive.
Choice in how we respond.
Choice in whether we are carried away by the movement — or whether we are able to stay aware within it.
Without denying the personal, we go underneath it.
We ask:
Who am I in all of this?
From where does all of this arise — this movement of thought, feeling, identity, memory, reactivity?
If I am part of it…
what am I, really?
What begins to reveal itself is not another idea.
It is a direct experience:
Vast awareness — open, awake, and alive — not caught in the constant shaping and reshaping of the personal self.
You don’t have to believe this. True inner exploration doesn’t require belief. In fact preconceptions can limit the freedom of our inquiry.
You can see it for yourself — if you’re willing to look. If you are curious enough and determined to know.
And this is where the practice becomes very simple.
Not easy. But simple.
We keep going.
After more than 50 years of serious inquiry into what it means to live and embody yoga I am choosing to make this work available to everyone.
No more paywall.
You are free to watch, read, and engage with all of it.
If this work matters to you, I ask that you support it through a paid subscription.
This body of work develops over time. Your support allows it to continue — for both of us.
Where the elements come in
We journey in and around the elemental source of our thoughts and feelings. Some are very rough or dense — shrouded in the earth element or burning with the fire, for example.
Each element relates to its own aspect of consciousness.
Earth is dense and almost impossible to see through.
Water is emotional and flowing. It relates to our emotional body and mind.
Fire gives light and warmth. It stimulates our intellect, our digesting of thoughts and food.
Air! Air begins to offer a wider vision that is not completely bound by the personal anymore. Air brings in more love and increasing freedom in our perceiving minds.
Space: Finally, the most subtle, the least dense of the elements. The one that actually creates the container for all others. Space is truly spacious. In the space element we meet the place where the universal and the personal are blending. It feels good. It is like the big, “Ahhhh…” of our lives.
“Ah yes, this is here…and it always was, and it always will be.” Space is where comfort lives. It is always here, it always underlies everything else, and it is available to embody, know directly and experience as the foundation of all other experiences.
Part of staying with it, is learning not to resist seeing aspects of self that you don’t like.
If you stay with it — really stay — something shifts.
Not by force. Not by analysis.
By seeing.
go inward
pay attention
allow
go deeper
notice what is underneath
do it again
This isn’t about transcending your life.
It’s about knowing what you are doing in the middle of living it.
Learn to meditate with me. We take the effortless effort path of paying attention — close attention — and allowing the inner processes to reveal themselves.
It’s great to be able to share with you.
Thank you.
With love,
Patty