Text of the meditation
Live sweetly and happily, as befits the dignity of true manhood and womanhood. There is no greater happiness than to be occupied with good, whether it be good thoughts, good actions or good employment; for every good thing is fraught with bliss, and evil cannot enter the heart or house that is tenanted by all that is good.
The mind whose doors are guarded by good shuts out unhappiness as a well-sentried garrison shuts out the foe. Unhappiness can enter only through unguarded doors, and even then its power over the occupant is not complete unless it finds them occupied with evil. Not to entertain evil thoughts; not to do bad actions; not to engage in worthless or questionable employment, but to resort to good in all things: this is the source of supreme happiness.
Pure happiness is the rightful and happy condition of the soul.
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.
