Space vs Other Elements

Assume you are trying to take the lotus posture and that your knee pains. One possible reason could be the collision between the thigh bone (femur) and the shinbone (tibia). Most probably both the femur and the tibia rotate inwards when we attempt lotus and this causes the bones to collide causing pain in the knee. Most often, the cure could be to rotate the femur and tibia outwards with ones hand. This relieves the stress in the knees for most people.

What happens is that space is created in the knee between the femur and tebia when we rotate the bones outward. This drastically reduces the pain felt inside the knee. This space element is a wonderful way to eliminate pain at both the physical and mental levels. Similar to the knee pain, individuals suffer because their minds do not have enough space to hold both reality and their hopes of reality. First step in such cases is to create space so that the two can co-exist without colliding. When this happens, there is less pain. This lack of pain frees up the individual to creatively and effectively deal with the situation.

Creative dealing with the situation demands the use of other elements. Just space element will not suffice here. A well developed space element protects one from suffering but does little externally. The other elements do that job. Yoga necessarily consists of developing all the elements well!