Text of the meditation
Selfishness, the root of the tree of evil and of all suffering, derives its nourishment from the dark soil of ignorance. The rich and the poor alike suffer for their own selfishness, and none escape. The rich have their particular sufferings as well as the poor.
Moreover, the rich are continually losing their riches; the poor are continually acquiring them. The poor person of today is the rich person of tomorrow, and vice versa. Fear, too, follows people like a great shadow, for the one who obtains and holds by selfish force will always be haunted by a feeling of insecurity, and will continually fear its loss; while the poor person, who is selfishly seeking or coveting material riches, will be harassed by the fear of destitution.
And one and all who live in this underworld of strife are overshadowed by one great fear: the fear of death. Each individual suffers by virtue of their own selfishness.
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.