Text of the meditation
The present is the synthesis of the entire past; the net result of all that a person has ever thought and done is contained within them. It is this knowledge of the Perfect Law working through and above all things, of the Perfect Justice operating in and adjusting all human affairs, that enables the good person to love their enemies, and to rise above all hatred, resentment and complaining; for they know that only their own can come to them, and that, though they are surrounded by persecutors, their enemies are but the blind instruments of a faultless retribution; and so they do not blame them, but calmly receive their accounts, and patiently pay their moral debts.
But this is not all; they do not merely pay their debts; they take care not to contract any further debts. They watch themselves and make their deeds faultless. Characteristics are fixed habits of mind, the results of deeds.
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.
