Date: 14-23 September, 2024
Place: International Buddhist Academy (IBA), Kathmandu, Nepal
Audio: Download or Archive.org
Text: Knowing and Seeing by the Most Venerable Pa-Auk Tawya Sayadaw

The four elements meditation is a profound practice of mindfulness and insight, based on the contemplative exploration of the characteristics of the elements of earth, water, fire, and air in one’s own body. It opens the door to deep insight into the nature of the body and the world of our experience.

This analytical-meditative approach was systematized in the Visuddhimagga by Buddhaghosa and is extensively taught in the Abhidhamma based forest tradition of Burma, by teachers such as the Most Venerable Pa Auk Tawya Sayadaw.

A Heartfelt Thank You to Our Interpreters:

A huge thank you to our interpreters for making the lectures accessible in Spanish and Russian!
Nadia – our dear friend, professional Buddhist translator, translating from Tibetan, Nepali, Spanish, and English. Contact: [insert contact].
Zoya – our dear friend who kindly helped with Russian translation. Please bear with minor inaccuracies, as the topic was very specialized.
We deeply appreciate their incredible effort and dedication!
Simultaneous translation into Russian
Simultaneous translation into Spanish

Technical Difficulties with Recordings:

We encountered technical difficulties, and unfortunately, the sessions from the first two days are unavailable. However, you can access lectures covering the same material from a similar course held in English at Deer Park in 2019. Below, you will find a table of recordings we have compiled based on detailed lecture notes.

Lecture	English	Russian	Espanol
14.1 Introduction to 4 element meditation + wind element	✗	✗	✗
14.2 Wind element – vibration	✗	✗	✗
14.3 Wind element – pushing	✗	✗	✗
14.4 Summary + earth element	✗	✗	✗
15.1 Earth element – raffness, heaviness	✗	✗	✗
15.2 Summary	✗	✗	✗
15.3 Mindfulness, cetasikas + four elements	✗	✗	✗
15.4 Summary	✗	✗	✗
16.1 Morning short summary	✓	✗	✗
16.2 Wind element – supporting	✓	✓	✓
16.3 Five hidrances in meditation	✓	✓	✓
16.4 Ven. Tenzin	✓	✓	✓
16.5 Q&A	✓	✓	✗
17.1 Explanation of 4 elements + water and fire element	✓	✓	✓
17.2 Q&A	✓	✓	✓
17.3 Ven. Tenzin	✓	✗	✗
17.4 Recitation	✓	✗	✗
18.1 Southern and northern buddhism + fire element	✓	✓	✓
18.2 Q&A	✓	✓	✗
18.3 Ven. Tenzin	✓	✗	✗
18.4 Summary	✗	✓	✗
19.1 Water element	✓	✓	✓
19.2 Q&A	✓	✓	✓
19.3 Ven. Tenzin	✓	✗	✗
19.4 Summary	✓	✓	✓
20.1 Shamatha	✓	✓	✓
20.2 Q&A morning	✓	✓	✓
20.3 Q&A evening	✗	✓	✗
20.4 Various abhidharma systems	✗	✓	✗
21.1 Shamatha	✓	✓	✓
21.2 Q&A	✓	✓	✓
21.3 Ven. Tenzin	✓	✓	✗
21.4 Ven. Tenzin Q&A	✓	✓	✗
22.1 Shamatha	✓	✓	✓
22.2 Q&A	✓	✓	✓
22.3 Ven. Tenzin Q&A	✓	✓	✗
22.4 Closing talk Dhammadipa and kempo Jordan	✓	✓	✓
22.5 Closing talk venerable Tenzin and Christian	✓	✗	✓