Text of the meditation
Whoever would be blessed, let them scatter blessings. The farmer must scatter all their seed upon the land, and then leave it to the elements. If they were to hoard their seed greedily, they would lose both the seed and the produce, for the seed would perish. It perishes when it is sown, but in perishing it brings forth a greater abundance.
So in life, we get by giving; we grow rich by scattering. A person who says they possess knowledge that they cannot give out because the world is incapable of receiving it either does not possess such knowledge or, if they do, will soon be deprived of it, if they are not already deprived of it.
To hoard is to lose; to keep exclusively is to be dispossessed. Whoever would be happy, let them consider the happiness of others.
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.