mike ....brilliant...merle Merle,
Interesting. In vipassana meditation we're also taught to recognise these 4 elements. Quite simply, you can increase your depth of concentration by focusing on them. For example, the air passing thru the nostrils can be experienced as hot or cold (fire - usually cool on the inhalation and hot on the exhalation); water can also be experienced in the fluid in the breath or in the 'gurgling' of the stomach; earth can be experienced in the solidity of the body - for example the feeling of your bum on the cushion; air can be experienced in the feeling of space inside the body or movement of the breath thru the cardio- system. These are just a couple of many such experiences. By turning our focus on them we can can get very intimate with our bodies and see things like impermanence and dukkha (unsatisfactoriness) etc. They can even be used to hone our concentration to the point of entry into the jhanas. Mike http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humorism
