What Is Matter Made Of?

All material forms are composed of the great seeds of earth, water, fire, wind, and space. When the proportion of the water-great seed predominates, it forms the fluid substance of water. Water is formed by the aggregation of water molecules, which contain hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Within each atom, there exist even smaller particles such as protons, neutrons, atomic nuclei, and so forth. Each minute particle is composed of the four great seeds—earth, water, fire, and wind—along with the space-great seed. This inclusion of space creates voids within the particles, allowing them to move along spatial orbits. Variations in the arrangement and combination of the four great seeds and the space-great seed result in different particles and distinct modes of motion.

Water contains the earth-great element, which provides solidity, thus giving water its property of resistance. Water possesses temperature; its heat or coldness constitutes the fire-great element. Water exhibits fluidity, which is the function of the wind-great element. Within water molecules, the space-great element exists, creating voids. If water is heated, the arrangement and motion patterns of the four great seeds and the space-great seed within its particles are altered, causing the physical properties of water to change, and liquid water transforms into gaseous water vapor. If the temperature of water is reduced below zero degrees Celsius, the arrangement and motion patterns of water particles also change, leading to a transformation in its physical properties, and liquid water turns into solid ice.

The four great seeds do not transform into one another. The water-great seed remains eternally the water-great seed under any conditions; it does not become the earth-great seed, the fire-great seed, the wind-great seed, or the space-great seed. Only the arrangement of the seeds mixed together changes, and the structure of the seeds alters, resulting in a change in their physical properties.

The seven great seeds inherently present in the tathagatagarbha cannot be altered by any external conditions, nor can the tathagatagarbha change the nature of these seeds. Water-great cannot transform into earth-great; there is no such principle in Buddhism, for if it were otherwise, the material world would fall into chaos, and the seeds within the tathagatagarbha would also become disordered. If water-great could become earth-great, then there would be no water-great within the tathagatagarbha, leaving only six great seeds. With one seed missing, the physical bodies of sentient beings could not form, material phenomena could not arise, the world would lack substance, and thus the world itself would cease to exist. In such a case, the world would not exist at all, and the ten-direction worlds would also cease to be.