Text of the meditation
Seers of the Cosmos do not mourn over the scheme of things. Seers of the Cosmos see the universe as a perfect whole, and not as an imperfect jumble of parts. The Great Teachers are people of abiding joy and heavenly peace. The blind captive of unholy desire may cry: "Ah, Love, could you and I with Him conspire to grasp this sorry scheme of things entire, would we not shatter it to bits, and then remould it nearer to the heart's desire?" This is the wish of the voluptuary: the wish to enjoy unlawful pleasures to any extent, and not reap any painful consequences.
It is such people who regard the universe as a "sorry scheme of things." They want the universe to bend to their will and desire; they want lawlessness, not law; but the wise person bends their will and subjects their desires to the Divine Order, and sees the universe as the glorious perfection of an infinitude of parts.
To perceive it is the beatific vision; to know it is the beatific bliss.
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.
