Text of the meditation
Having no knowledge of cause and effect in the moral sphere, people do not see the exacting process that is proceeding moment by moment. People blindly inflict suffering upon themselves, living in passion and resentment, and not finding the true way of life. Hatred is met with hatred, passion with passion, strife with strife.
The one who kills is themselves killed; the thief who lives by depriving others is themselves deprived; the beast that preys on others is hunted and killed; the accuser is accused, the condemner is condemned, the denouncer is persecuted. "By this the slayer's knife doth stab himself, the unjust judge has lost his own defender, the false tongue dooms its lie, the creeping thief and spoiler rob to render.
Such is the Law." Ignorance keeps hatred and strife alive.
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.