Text of the meditation
Truth cannot be limited. The glory alike of the saint, the sage and the saviour is this: that they have realised the most profound lowliness, the most sublime unselfishness; having given up all, even their own personality, all their works are holy and enduring, for they are freed from every taint of self.
They give, yet never think of receiving; they work, yet without regretting the past or anticipating the future, and never look for reward. When the farmer has tilled and dressed their land and put in the seed, they know that they have done all they possibly can, and that now they must trust to the elements, and wait patiently for the course of time to bring about the harvest, and that no amount of expectancy on their part will affect the result.
Even so, one who has realised the Truth goes forth as a sower of the seeds of goodness, purity, love and peace, without expectancy, and never looking for results, knowing that there is the Great Overruling Law that brings about its own harvest in due time, and that is alike the source of preservation and destruction.
Every holy person became such by unremitting perseverance in self-sacrifice.
James Allen (1864–1912), Book of Meditations for Every Day in the Year (1913) – public-domain text, gently modernised.
The original 1913 text is in the public domain.
