I remember one time, when I was a young boy, some-
one said something mean to me. All at once I became con-
scious of my reaction. I wondered, “How could mere words
hurt so much?” After all, no one hit me with a rock.Already
a searching soul, I was standing back and looking at the awe-
some effect of words. I saw how my ego was built out of
them.
       I remember that I would sometimes ask myself a ques-
tion, and words would come back from within my mind. I
thought, “This is ridiculous! Here I am, asking myself a
question, and this part of me that sounds like me, but isn’t
me, comes up with an answer.” I saw that I still didn’t know
the real answer, even though it pretended to be me giving
me the answer.
       You too have this language spirit, a descendant of the
spirit of doubt that was present when Paradise was lost. It

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