Text of the meditation
Let a person learn to stand alone. If a person can find no peace within themselves, where will they find it? If they dread being alone with themselves, what steadfastness will they find in company? If they can find no joy in communion with their own thoughts, how will they escape misery in contact with others?
The person who has found nothing within themselves on which to stand will nowhere find a place of constant rest. Without is change and decay and insecurity; within is all surety and blessedness. The soul is sufficient of itself. Where the need is, there is the abundant supply.
Your eternal dwelling place is within. Be rich in yourself, be complete in yourself.
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.
