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Rupa Introduction

Elements of Matter

Photo from the Webb space-telescope
Photo from the Webb space-telescope

The Abhid­ham­ma lists 28 dif­fer­ent types of rupas. Four of these rupas — the so-called four great essen­tials — con­sti­tute the pri­ma­ry qual­i­ties of all mat­ter. All four are present in all mate­r­i­al objects, sub­atom­ic or macro­scop­ic, although in vary­ing degrees of strength.

The essential rupas

  • solidity, hardness (traditionally: the earth-element)
  • fluidity, cohesion (traditionally: the water-element)
  • Heat, temperature (traditionally: the fire-element)
  • Movement, pressure (traditionally: the air-element)



Tra­di­tion­al­ly, it is said that all mate­r­i­al phe­nom­e­na are: based on the earth-ele­ment, held togeth­er by the water-ele­ment, main­tained by the fire-ele­ment and dis­tend­ed by the air-element. 

The 28 dif­fer­ent rupas are divid­ed into two fun­da­men­tal­ly dif­fer­ent forms of mat­ter: the so-called con­crete­ly pro­duced mat­ter, which pos­sess­es an inher­ent, phys­i­cal­ly tan­gi­ble nature, and non-con­crete­ly pro­duced mat­ter, which is more abstract in nature.

Rupa dhammas

Abhid­ham­ma and Patthana do not deal much with mate­r­i­al phe­nom­e­na as a whole. With regards to mat­ter, the texts are main­ly con­cerned with the body and its con­stituents, and with mat­ter in its role as object of sense. In short, Patthana are all about process­es and inter­ac­tions inter­nal­ly in the mind, in the mind-body inter­ac­tions and in the mind’s reac­tions to sen­so­ry objects.