Secret Power of Words

saved from. That's why you need to listen to men like me who represent the spirit you have fallen from-so that you might believe truly. You must see how pride makes you fall from understanding, as it enlarges itself on words that lie, until eventually the lie, leading with confusion, takes us to our tragic death.
     Let's say someone called you a stupid fool in Japanese. Would that disturb you? It might disturb a Japanese per­son, but it shouldn't disturb you because you wouldn't know what the words meant. But the words "stupid fool" have associations for you, and so you react to their meaning. However, it is an external meaning, not an internal one.
     I have a boat, as I like to fIsh. There's a red warning light on my bilge pump panel. When that red light goes on, I have reason to worry, right? But if you didn't know what the red light was for, you might just say,"Oh, look at that red light!" Perhaps you'd think it means that I need to change my oil, and then you wouldn't be too bothered. But if you realized the red light meant that there was water flooding into the bilge, you'd react, wouldn't you? When you know what something means, you react to it.
     Words have two kinds of meaning. For instance, I could tell you with love that you were stupid, and I could thus wake you up to the fact that you were. I could bring you to your senses. The same thing, uttered by a not-so-well-meaning per­son, would have an entirely different effect on you.
     Look now at your folly. Isn't your ego too involved with words? Perhaps your mother's words are loaded. Her attitude shoots word bullets at you as if from a loaded gun. It makes you hate her, doesn't it? Until you learn the secret

xvii: Next>>