Text of the meditation
Stimulate the mind to watchfulness and reflection. It will be seen that the first step in the discipline of the mind is the overcoming of indolence. This is the easiest step, and until it is perfectly accomplished the other steps cannot be taken. Clinging to indolence constitutes a complete barrier to the Path of Truth.
Indolence consists in giving the body more ease and sleep than it requires, in procrastinating, and in shirking and neglecting those things that should receive immediate attention. This condition of laziness must be overcome by rousing the body at an early hour, giving it just the amount of sleep it requires for complete recuperation, and by doing, promptly and vigorously, every task and duty, no matter how small, as it comes along.
The heart must be purified of sensual and gustatory lust.
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.
