Tibetan Medicine Explanation(1-1)

ELEMENTS
All of the material which makes up our universe is based on the qualities of 5 basic elements which are described in the ancient physics depicted in Tibetan medicine.

Tibetans, as all traditional people, lived in direct contact with the natural environment. They understood through experience and study that the forces manifest in the natural environment directly correlated with and influenced the functioning of the human organism. In the theory of the five elements we see an effort to define the qualities of the basic forces which exist in nature.

Once defined they are named for their most identifiable manifestations: earth, water, fire, wind and space. The characteristics (such as a substance's taste) and therefore the nature of all matter then result from the qualities of these elements individually or in combination.

Step 1: Tibetan Medicine Explanation(1-2)

Earth has qualities like firmness and stability and therefore provides the basis of physical existence and development.

Water creates moisture in all its forms and so in the body gives rise to all fluids.

Fire due to its heat creates transformation and activity and therefore is expressed as for example metabolic functions.

Wind creates movement and therefore in the body all aspects of circulation Space provides the potential for existence to be created in the first place.

Combinations of these qualities make up the physical aspect of our bodies as well as its distinct physiological energies.