What are the Tibetan Five Elements?

The Tibetan Five Elements are defined as Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space. Each element has an associated color, shape, and mantric sound which when chanted out loud, activates that elemental energy in your body and your environment.

Each element also governs a different “chakra” (energy center) and different functioning of the physical body. For example, Fire Element is seated in the sex chakra. It rules the sexual functioning and reproductive system, the muscular structure of the body, the digestive fire, and all of the electrical impulses in the body.

Additionally, each element is an antidote to the “root cause” of most illness and dysfunction of body, mind, and spirit. The root cause of illness in Tibetan medicine stem from what are referred to as “the five root poisons of human emotion”.

The five root poisons are anger, attachment, pride, jealousy and ignorance, which give rise to over 84,000 different kinds of afflicted emotions. Unaddressed, these emotional energies become “toxic” and literally create poisons in the body, which can contribute to physical, mental and emotional illnesses.

Western scientific studies on the biochemical relationship of stress and health further validate this ancient science. In fact, The American Medical Association has noted that stress is the basic cause of more than 60 percent of all human illness and disease. A typical stress reaction, which is usually caused by or at least accompanied by one of these five root poisons, can set off a cascade of over 1,400 biochemical reaction in the body. These biochemical reactions to stress have been shown to suppress immune functioning, increase inflammation, increase chances of heart disease and heart attacks, increase anxiety, depression and emotional disorders, and contribute to many other western medical disorders.

The Tibetan 5 Element Practices can be used both sexually and non-sexually to transform these emotional energies in the body and dissolve toxic thought patterns, and their subsequent physiological effects. Once these root poisons are “purified” and the energy centers of the body (chakras) are healthy and balanced, the elements begin to manifest their power or “activity” in our every day lives.

For example, as your fire element chakra is healed, balanced, enriched, and the root poison of attachment begins to purify in your life, you may find that your ability to magnetize or attract auspicious (lucky) circumstances in your life increases.
Below is an outline of each element, the root poison that it addresses, and the wisdom and power that begins to manifest in your life. 

How to use the Five Elements for Healing

There are a variety of ways in which you can activate, enrich, balance, and heal the elemental energies in your body, mind, and spirit.

In the Tibetan Tantric tradition one of the quickest most direct ways of doing this is through Tibetan Five Element Meditation Practices, which can include the practice of running the elements, both sexual and non sexually. These ancient power practices are part of what we teach in our Authentic Tantra Training and Coaching Programs.

These practices allow us to use the power of weaving light (visualization) and sound (mantric chanting), with form (your body) to catalyze profound healing and transformation of consciousness.

In fact, in the Tibetan Tantric tradition, the word Tantra means “to weave light and sound with form” and refers more to an actual yogic practice than it does to any philosophy or religious view point.