Text of the meditation
In solitude a person gathers strength to meet the difficulties and temptations of life. Just as the body requires rest for the recuperation of its forces, so the spirit requires solitude for the renewal of its energies. Solitude is as indispensable to a person's spiritual welfare as sleep is to their bodily well-being; and pure thought, or meditation, which is evoked in solitude, is to the spirit what activity is to the body.
As the body breaks down when deprived of needful rest and sleep, so the spirits of people break down when deprived of necessary silence and solitude. A human being, as a spiritual being, cannot be maintained in strength, uprightness and peace unless they periodically withdraw from the outer world of perishable things, and reach inwardly toward the abiding and imperishable realities.
Whoever loves Truth, who desires and seeks wisdom, will be much alone.
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.
