Text of the meditation
By self-enlightenment is Perfect Freedom found. There is no bondage in the Heavenly Life. There is Perfect Freedom. This is its great glory. This Supreme Freedom is gained only by obedience. One who obeys the Highest cooperates with the Highest, and so masters every force within themselves and every condition without.
A person may choose the lower and neglect the Higher, but the Higher is never overcome by the lower: herein lies the revelation of Freedom. Let a person choose the Higher and abandon the lower; they will then establish themselves as an overcomer, and will realise Perfect Freedom.
To give the reins to inclination is the only slavery; to conquer oneself is the only freedom. The slave to self loves their chains, and will not have one of them broken for fear of depriving themselves of some cherished delight. They thus defeat and enslave themselves.
The Land of Perfect Freedom lies through the Gate of Knowledge.
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.
