Text of the meditation
People live in spheres low or high according to the nature of their thoughts. Consider the person whose mind is suspicious, covetous and envious. How small and mean and dreary everything appears to them. Having no grandeur in themselves, they see no grandeur anywhere; being ignoble themselves, they are incapable of seeing nobility in anyone; selfish as they are, they see in the most exalted acts of unselfishness only motives that are mean and base.
Consider again the person whose mind is unsuspecting, generous and magnanimous. How wondrous and beautiful is their world. They see people as true, and to them they are true. In their presence the meanest forget their nature, and for the moment become like them, getting a glimpse, albeit confused, in that temporary upliftment, of a higher order of things, of an immeasurably nobler and happier life.
Refrain from harbouring thoughts that are dark and hateful, and cherish thoughts that are bright and beautiful.
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.
