Five of Lots of Things

The pattern of Five appears often.

The Five Senses

The Five Elements

The Five Fingers on Your Hand

I've been doing a lot of reading and thinking lately about the Classical Five Elements:

Air

Earth

Light, Fire, Heat

Water

Aether, Nothing, Void, Emptiness


I've never been one to indulge for very long in thoughts about monism, non-duality, unity, the One. Trying to reduce the joyful and beautiful complexity of life, of nature, or the cosmos to one single principle, idea, source, or generator just does not resonate with me.  Context, multiplicity and complexity are more vital and interesting to me than unity or singularity.  My meditations are on complexity, wholes, contexts, multiplicity, interdependence, things and not on Unity or the 'One.'  Many yogis favor a withdrawal from the senses (Pratyahara) to reach one-pointed concentration; I favor savoring, exploring, feeding, and enriching the senses.  I favor rich and colorful stories about many goddesses and gods, over boring rants about the "The One True God."

Even the pre-scientific 5 classical "Elements" are not enough, we now need 103 elements; and that is not counting the numerous sub-atomic energy particles besides electrons, protons, and neutrons.