“Give me a place to stand and a long enough lever, and I can move the world.” – Archimedes

Many people think that changing yourself is the sum total of spiritual work, and in a sense, they’re right. But when people dedicate themselves to a life of service, changing themselves is no longer enough.

The term “leverage” has to do with power, and the definition of power is the ability to do work.

First, you move yourself with the “lever,” then you move the world. A person who has any degree of illumination and Self-realization is a powerful force in the world simply by virtue of being in it. But when such a person sets out to DO something, that power is multiplied exponentially.

By applying the principle of “As Above, So Below,” anywhere we see a single person, or a small group of people, having an enormous effect on the world, we are seeing the principle of leverage at work. By studying how it’s done in the world, we can discover ways to do it in the world of Spirit.

One of the most effective uses of the Law of Leverage is in changing the context of a situation. You see it done in politics all the time. It’s called “spin.” Most of the time, spin is used to deceive or deflect, but it can be used to empower people just as easily.

The sad truth is that we use spin against ourselves much of the time. We create an erroneous context and then live our lives into it. In many ways, spiritual training is all about changing the context of our lives. That’s the “changing yourself” part of the work. But when a person successfully changes him or herself by changing the context within which they live, they find themselves in an extraordinary position (Archimedes’ “place to stand”) to do great good in the world.

This is the Age of Activity. It’s no longer enough to “go within” to find God. Now, we must manifest God outwardly in our living. This goes beyond simply doing the right thing. (The world is not changed one righteous act at a time.) It means that we have to bring spiritual principles to bear on the world’s most pressing problems.

We cannot solve the problems we have created by using the same level of thinking that we used to create those problems. We have to raise the level of our activity to include the Law of Prayer, the Word, the Law of Correspondence, the Law of Assumption, and the Law of Leverage. If you’re going to work for the betterment of the planet, work smart, not hard.