Text of the meditation
It matters little what is without, for it is all a reflection of your own consciousness. The deplorable failure of many outward and isolated reforms is traceable to the fact that their devotees pursue them as an end in themselves, failing to see that they are merely steps toward ultimate, individual perfection.
All true reform must come from within, in a changed heart and mind. Giving up certain foods and drinks, and breaking away from certain outward habits, are good and necessary beginnings; but they are only beginnings, and to end there is to fall far short of a true spiritual life.
It is good, therefore, to cleanse the heart, to correct the mind, and to develop the understanding, for we know that the one thing needed is a regenerate heart. It matters everything what you are within, for everything without will be mirrored and coloured accordingly.
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.
