What a world we live in. Nature has been kind to the human race. Wouldn’t it be nice to show respect for it. The variety of flowers and vegetation is overwhelming and we take it all for granted. Nature can also be cruel. It can devastate us with wind and water and earth and fire and those are the very elements that the human being uses to create pain and suffering. Earth is practical, air is intelligence, water is emotion and fire is the power drive. Nature is our looking glass.
Fire and air are masculine while water and earth are feminine. We are attracted and we are repelled. Fire which represents the power drive also represents the spirit. So fire can be the highest or the lowest as can all the other elements. If you apply yourself only to the physical you are always going to be disappointed. The manifested is imperfect.
We desire freedom but that too is imperfect. Freedom is showing uncertainty and we as human beings don’t like that feeling so we deny ourselves freedom by our own nature. Freedom requires us to be self reliant and self sufficient and most of us find that very difficult. It really isn’t in our nature because we want to be with other human beings. We are social animals and that brings about the society and society limits freedom.
So we are what our nature dictates and we are how we are nurtured. We can plant a healthy flower in a poor environment and it will suffer just as we can take an unhealthy plant and place it in good environment and it will flourish. Basically, we suffer from both our constitution and our environment. We have to take care of ourselves.