The First Divine Principle was: “Uplift the self with no harm to others.” Can you tell us why this was stated first on the list and why it is important?

This is particularly important now for divine human following many, many centuries of subjugation, and in many cases, a self-imposed limitation from exposure to religious teachings of humility and self-denial as representing a holy way to live. This is a false teaching, so there is lost ground to make up for and regain. Denial of the self is no different than denial of anyone. It is particularly pernicious because any self-imposed negativity will have a greater consequence than the dislike of another. Your negativity may have a great impact or may have quite little impact on another person, depending on whether they are standing strong and refuse to take it to heart, and this is as it should be, for you are not here to be a judge or critic of others, and particularly not the self. This is perhaps the commonest shortcoming people have. To perceive the self as flawed, as incomplete, as inadequate, is very common and this springs largely from the current plight of physical human to exist in a state of ignorance and disconnection in a physical body that is fragile, and unfairly creates wide variations in capability both in physical stamina and strength, as well as in the area of attractiveness and resilience. These differences give rise to many false divisions of thought separating people from one another and this is most unfortunate because the container does not define the soul within and is a false reflection of what the individual is all about. This, too, is part of seasoning and learning to adapt to changing circumstances, and to have the enrichment from being hindered by constraints not of the person’s choosing, as one inherits the body in the same way as the physical genetics play a role coming from what came before. This is one of the understandings each soul has in coming into life with a new incarnation. The physical makeup will be determined to a great degree in choosing their family. Not only their own karma but the ancestral karma and genetic heritage will play a role in things like appearance as well as some aspects of the personality. This is fully understood and embraced because the goal here is learning, not to have perfection. The goal is to experience what can happen, to learn from it, and to grow wiser. If one arrives as a new infant into an ideal setting enjoying luxuries, privilege, and physical beauty, not only will this still fall well short of divine love and the bliss it creates, but it will deny the incoming soul an opportunity to learn from experiencing all that the physical existence can teach about the absence of bliss in harsher ways. This hard-won learning will prove to be the most crucial in the gaining of wisdom. Most people have doubts about the self that run quite deep, much of which can be karmic, accumulating from multiple prior lifetimes and then being reawakened with new insults and disappointments in the current life. So most people are fulfilling the intention of life in the physical incarnation in the sense of taking on its challenges and learning many, many things. There is a danger in having too many challenges to handle things and then suffering so greatly that one becomes impaired, and essentially may end their life or have the life truncated through severe illness or other impairment in response karmically to all the negative energy being generated. This, too, is anticipated and understood from the light being perspective but is difficult to understand and accept as physical humans trapped in such a dilemma, when they may become overwhelmed by life and feel they are in a hopeless circumstance. No one needs to feel this way because you are never alone, Creator is always in it with you and will help if asked. This can take time and become a project and enterprise involving tremendous effort, particularly when much negativity has been experienced and not healed, and this accumulates over multiple lifetimes. Given this very common scenario, the admonition to raise up the self with no harm to others carries with it great importance because of the urgency of the need, and the fact most people are coming from behind and facing a huge karmic backlog of unhealed trauma. At the same time, there is due consideration for others in the First Principle and that is appropriate as well, because in the same way the universe is about the maintaining of balance, the Divine Principles for Living are all intended to be followed while keeping in mind the need for balance so they are not taken to extremes that cause harm to the self or others, as that defeats the purpose and will undermine the exercise and negate its benefits.