Text of the meditation
In the external universe there is ceaseless turmoil, change and unrest; at the heart of all things there is undisturbed repose; in this deep silence dwells the Eternal. As there are depths in the ocean that the fiercest storm cannot reach, so there are silent, holy depths in the human heart that the storms of sin and sorrow can never disturb.
To reach this silence and to live consciously in it is peace. Discord is rife in the outward world, but unbroken harmony holds sway at the heart of the universe. The human soul reaches blindly toward the harmony of the sinless state, and to reach this state and to live consciously in it is peace.
Come away, for a while, from external things, from the pleasure of the senses, from the arguments of the intellect, from the noise and the excitements of the world, and withdraw into the inmost chamber of your heart, and there, free from the sacrilegious intrusion of all selfish desires, you will find a holy calm, a blissful repose; the faultless eye of Truth will open within you, and you will see things as they really are.
Become as little children.
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.
