Spiritual work, when stripped of religious undertones and New Age overtones, is simply the investigation of mind. Mind is a space, or a medium, into which flow all sorts of phenomena: especially, for the average person, thoughts and feelings. When we latch onto these thoughts and feelings (remain average) then they become worries and emotions – obstructions in mind and obstacles to peace. When we detach from thoughts and feelings – allow them to arise and allow them to pass – then we enter and permeate the space into which they venture or, rather, that space enters us. Spiritual work starts, always, with relaxing our mind of worries and emotions – gaining some control of self-indulgence – so that we can commence the amazing journey into true mind, which is never really our own, but rather a general universal space, available to all, on/in a very different dimension to that of the observable physical world. Without first quietening the mind and accessing the inner peace that our internal chatter smothers then higher levels on the spiritual path are simply inaccessible.