Many people who become interested in spiritual development immediately begin looking upwards. They search for higher consciousness, meditation, Light, Love, spiritual knowledge and ways to come closer to the Divine. There is nothing wrong with that longing, but something essential is often forgotten: the human being who wants to carry all of this is living here, in a physical body, with a mind that influences that body every day. If that foundation is unstable, then everything that is built upon it will also have difficulty becoming stable.

This is why I do not believe that spiritual development should begin by trying to take a person away from ordinary human life. It should begin by bringing the person more completely into life. The body is not an obstacle that has to be overcome as quickly as possible. It is the instrument through which we eat, sleep, move, work, speak, touch, act and experience our existence on Earth. If we want that instrument eventually to carry greater consciousness, greater Love and greater Light, then we must first learn to care for it.

For many people, this means beginning with very simple things. How do you eat? How well do you digest what you eat? How much water do you drink? How do you sleep? Does your body receive enough movement? Is there a natural rhythm in your day, or are you constantly asking the body to adjust to stress, exhaustion and irregularity? These questions may not sound spiritual, but they belong to the foundation of human life. A person cannot continually neglect the body and at the same time expect that body to become a strong and clear instrument for something higher.

The physical body, however, cannot simply be separated from the mind. Even when we say that we begin with physical work, the mental side is already present because the way we think influences the way we live. Thought influences behaviour, behaviour becomes habit, and habit has consequences for the body. At the same time, the condition of the body influences mental clarity, concentration, rest and the way we respond to the circumstances of life. Body and mind are therefore not two isolated systems that can be developed independently of one another. They continually work together.

That is why the first task is not spiritual expansion but stability. During the beginning, the physical body needs to become more stable, and gradually the mind needs to learn to support that stability. The mind should not continually pull the person in one direction while the body is asking for something completely different. There has to be cooperation. When the body and mind begin to work together, a stronger human foundation can be created.

This is also why spiritual development cannot be reduced to gathering more knowledge. A person can know a great deal about meditation, consciousness, chakras, energy and spiritual laws while remaining physically exhausted and mentally unsettled. Knowledge alone does not change the human being. What matters is whether what we understand begins to enter the way we actually live. If meditation remains separate from food, sleep, rhythm, thought, speech, behaviour and daily choices, then two lives begin to exist beside one another: the spiritual life during meditation and the ordinary life during the rest of the day.

Real change begins when those two are no longer separated. Meditation has to become visible in life. If a person begins to understand the importance of the body, that understanding should gradually influence the way the body is treated. If a person begins to recognise the influence of thought, that recognition should gradually change the way the mind is used. The purpose is not to become perfect overnight. The purpose is to begin moving in one direction instead of continually working against oneself.

This requires repetition. Modern life teaches people to look continually for something new, and the same attitude often enters meditation. Another meditation, another technique, another teaching and another spiritual idea can create the impression that something important is always happening, but real transformation does not necessarily come from constant change. Sometimes it comes from staying with one thing long enough for it to work more deeply.

When a meditation is repeated for seven consecutive days, the purpose is not to create boredom. The purpose is to allow the same work to continue instead of interrupting it every day with something different. Especially when the physical foundation is involved, time matters. The body has lived according to certain habits and rhythms for years, sometimes for decades. The mind has also repeated the same patterns for years. Stability cannot be demanded in a few moments simply because the person has decided that change would be desirable.

The human being has to be given time to respond. This is why I prefer a simple rhythm in the beginning. One meditation is used for an entire week. The same work is continued every day. Then the next meditation begins and again receives a full week. There is no need to rush. The purpose is not to finish as many meditations as possible. The purpose is that the meditation begins to do something with the person who is practising it.

The same principle applies to daily life. Greater physical stability is not created by one good meal, one early night or one day of drinking enough water. It comes through continuity. Mental stability is not created because a person has one peaceful thought. The mind has to learn another way of functioning. This is why the first months are not about reaching upwards as quickly as possible. They are about building something that can remain standing.

There is also a wider reason for doing this work. A human being does not live alone. Whatever we carry within ourselves enters our relationships, our families, our work and our contact with other people. A person who is continually exhausted, agitated or unstable brings something different into the world from someone who has become physically stronger and mentally steadier. This does not require any complicated spiritual explanation. We experience it every day.

When one person becomes calmer, the way that person responds can change. When one person becomes stronger, that person can carry life differently. When one person becomes more stable, the people around that person also encounter that greater stability. In this way, working on oneself is not selfish. The result of what we become is continually being brought into the world.

This is why changing the world begins with changing the human being. The world is not an abstract thing somewhere outside us. It is made every day by billions of people through what they think, say, do, create and bring into their relationships with one another. If the human being becomes more conscious, more stable and stronger, then something within the world also begins to change.

Only after this foundation has begun to become stable does it make sense to bring the spiritual dimension more consciously into the work. At that point, the purpose is no longer only greater physical and mental stability. The Heart can begin to become more important, and Universal Love can begin to be stimulated more consciously. But even then, the earlier work is not abandoned. The physical body and the mind remain part of the human being. Spiritual development does not mean leaving them behind.

This is also important when we speak about becoming a Lightworker. The word itself means very little if the human being is not yet able to carry Light. A person may feel a sincere calling to help others and may genuinely love spiritual teaching, but a calling is not yet the same thing as the capacity to carry what one wishes to give. You cannot truly be for another what you are not yet able to be within yourself.

For that reason, I do not begin by telling people that they have to save the world or carry Light for humanity. First they have to become stronger within themselves. First the physical and mental foundation has to be developed. Then the spiritual dimension can begin to open more consciously. Universal Love can become stronger within the Heart, and eventually that Love and Light can begin to move outward through a human being who has become more capable of carrying them.

At that point, service begins to take on another meaning. It is no longer only an idea that someone should help the world. The human being himself has started to become different, and therefore what he brings into the world is different. His meditation can then become wider than his own personal development. He can begin to work consciously with others and direct Love, Light and energy towards humanity and the Earth.

But there is no reason to begin at the end.

First there has to be a foundation. The physical body has to become stronger and more stable. The mind has to learn to cooperate with the body. Then the spiritual dimension can be brought more consciously into the work, and Universal Love can begin to become a living force rather than only a beautiful idea. From there, the work can gradually move outward towards others and towards the world.

That is the order I believe in because it begins where the human being actually is.

We do not begin by asking a person to become something higher.

We begin by helping the human being become more stable within himself.

From there, everything else can be built.