Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast, brought to you in part by Book of Zen,

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Today's podcast has been edited and adapted from the book The Mental Cure by Walter

Felt Evans, published in 1874.

One of the principal mediums through which mind acts upon mind is that of words, spoken or written. Words are the representatives of ideas, the outward manifestation of thought, the symbols of our hidden spiritual power.

They are things that have life in them, which is communicated by them.

They are not mere empty sounds, like the sighing of the wind or the noise of a waterfall.

If this were the case, they would be of no more consequence than the breath expended in producing them.

The whole soul is sometimes in the words we utter, especially when, to use the common expression,

they come from the heart, that is, from a love of life.

The outward material body is not who we are, and is not a necessary part of humanity.

It is the mind that defines you, and the mind is composed of two departments love and intellect which are

outwardly manifested as affection and thought and ultimately expressed in the

words we say your words are charged with the very life of you the the vital force of your soul. They affect not only the

mind, but they sink into the interior depths of our being. They are not like leaves loosened from

the trees by an autumn wind and strewn upon a lake to float upon its surface.

They have spiritual gravity which causes them to sink into the hidden depths of the spirit.

Words are the index of character. They enclose them within our thoughts,

and the tone with which they are spoken indicates the state

of our affections.

The utterance of a single word can reveal the love, fear, or hate that lurks within it,

and as such our life and character are laid open to public view. By the effect of our words, others can perceive the cause.

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