A student brought up a Dhamma teaching: the Buddha taught us to contemplate the various elements as the source of suffering, and to let go of these conditioned formations. He was asked to expand on this.

Contemplating the four elements uproots our sense of selfhood, like a butcher selling an ox's flesh

He explained that once we can see conditioned existence as suffering, we uproot the notion of "being" — a person or a creature. Contemplating this regularly settles the mind; doubt, one of the hindrances, calms and subsides, leaving a mind soft and fit for work — able to release clinging to the aggregates and elements, which are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self, and to lift the mind toward the three characteristics without difficulty. The Buddha gave monks the analogy of contemplating this body as composed of the four elements — earth, water, wind, fire — like a butcher who slaughters an ox and divides the meat into portions for sale. A buyer doesn't ask to buy "an ox" — they buy meat, liver, blood, as food. Once the elements separate and dissolve, no part remains that can still be called "a body."

The inner voice insisting "this body is me" comes from the three natures, not from ourselves

Our life is sustained by views instilled in us since childhood, through other people and through the voice that arises within our own mind. This inner voice is something everyone shares — it's the nature of the three natures of Dhamma constantly guiding us. Apart from the wholesome, all of it guides us wrongly, especially the unwholesome, which not only uses ignorance to hide the truth from us but actively guides us to see this body as ourselves — instilling the belief that this mind is us, this body is us, when in truth it's merely a vehicle we inhabit temporarily, like clothing put on and changed. When someone criticizes us, the unwholesome stirs displeasure and bias against them; when someone praises us, it stirs excitement, keeping the mind from ever finding balance — pleased one moment, displeased the next — even though we have circled through countless births and deaths in saṃsāra, changing from one body to another like changing outfit after outfit, nothing lasting or permanent at all.

The Buddha therefore taught contemplating this body piece by piece — hair, body hair, nails, teeth, skin, bones, tissue, blood, fat — breaking it down all the way to the level of cells and elements. Noting this repeatedly according to truth, we see that each part is composed of the solid earth element, the flowing water element, the wind element that drives nutrients through the body, and the fire element arising from the friction of that movement, producing warmth. Our body is like a small world in itself, home to tiny living things — viruses, bacteria, all the way to parasites — relying on us for shelter, food, and habitat. Beyond the world outside the body, there is a world within the body, a world within the mind, and a world within the sphere of Dhamma — truths we need to study and understand.

Suffering arises from clinging; noting things as they truly are draws in merit that purifies impurity, one dimension at a time

In truth, we have no freedom at all — we are guided sometimes by the wholesome, sometimes by the unwholesome, sometimes by the neutral. When the unwholesome possesses the mind as house-owner, it presses and pressures us into acting as it dictates, drawing in demerit, producing suffering, grief, illness, and danger of every kind. Without the unwholesome, we wouldn't suffer at all — but because this nature exists, we do. The voice arising in our mind, which we mistake for our own voice, is in truth concealed and disguised specifically to keep us from knowing the truth, forcing us to think, speak, and act in ways we sometimes don't even want to — and once we've acted, we regret it, because demerit has already arisen, storing up consequences within the sphere of Dhamma that we must eventually repay when they ripen. A completed sphere of demerit contains three parts: the pattern of accomplishment belonging to the sinful side, the impurity that must be endured with great difficulty, and the sphere of ruin — a darkness even darker than demerit itself, meant to destroy our assets.

While we're still living, before that timer goes off, states of suffering already exist as a matter of course, and we need to note them. Contemplating and recognizing the earth, water, wind, and fire elements as they truly are — seeing this body as merely an assembly of elements, not any person or self at all — lets the sphere of knowing draw in pure energy, merit, to purify the impurity causing that suffering, lightening it until it dissolves. As our noting grows more refined, the sphere of knowing draws in pure energy to purify the concealing elements of ignorance further, until we can perceive an even subtler state of suffering. Doing this layer by layer, moving from one dimension to another beyond counting, we eventually reach the final dimension — the very one where even an arahant elder once exclaimed: "In this life, only suffering arises, only suffering persists, only suffering passes away. Now I have purified the ultimate end of the mass of suffering. There is nothing left for me to do in this existence."

Reaching our true self, the Dhamma body, is the starting point of the path, fruit, and Nibbana

Besides contemplating suffering, we can also contemplate the impermanence of conditioned things — both the impermanence of the body and of the mind. The mind's impermanence arises from the endless, unceasing competition among the three natures for turns of control, causing us to circle endlessly through birth and death, taking on one existence after another. Because this body and this mind are not our true self, we need to reach our true self: the Dhamma body, the Triple Gem within. Once we reach our true self, the starting point for purifying ourselves toward the path and its fruit begins — we set out on a journey straight toward Nibbana, gaining clear understanding of virtue, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation — an automatic system that carries us easily along the middle way. When this happens, attaining the path, fruit, and Nibbana is no longer difficult. The starting point, then, is understanding the truth of this body, to release our clinging — whether we contemplate it as suffering, as impermanent, or as not-self; even contemplating just one of these can lead us toward the path, fruit, and Nibbana.