Evil Tongue

"Most of us don’t give much thought to the things we say. We assume that once we’ve said something, it’s over and done with. Spiritually, this is not true. Words are energy and they live on. The comments flowing out of our mouths do not simply disappear into thin air. They remain with us at all times, hindering or helping our spiritual growth.

When we speak positively and refrain from evil speech, we surround ourselves with more and more positive energy, therefore sustaining our spiritual growth. Conversely, when we speak negatively about others, our words stay with us wherever we go, blocking our happiness. For instance, when we wake up in a bad mood for no apparent reason, Kabbalists explain there is a reason. The energy we created by maligning someone’s character yesterday adversely affects us today. And if we don’t go through a process of cleansing that energy by apologizing or committing to never do it again, it continues to stay with and influence us in negative ways.
As a great Kabbalist once said, “Pay more attention to what goes out of your mouth than to what goes in.”

Furthermore, we each have dormant, spiritual forces within – both positive and negative. These forces are awakened depending on where we focus our thoughts, words and consciousness. When we are busy focusing on and discussing the positive aspects in others, we awaken the sleeping beneficent forces within, enabling us to experience more joy and fulfillment in our lives. However, when we focus on others’ bad traits and gossip about them, we awaken the sleeping forces of negativity within, which have a very real, damaging effect on our lives.

The triggering of these forces is what determines whether we live a life marked by chaos and lack or joy and fulfillment.

Without a doubt, we are each constantly thrust into interactions with difficult people, leading us to want to judge and see their worst qualities. However, it is in our own best interest to fight this innate tendency of focusing on the negativity we so plainly see and instead to speak only of the good.

It is my hope that by understanding how evil speech damages us – not the person being spoken about – we will all be a little more mindful of the words we choose to speak so that we can experience greater joy and fulfillment in our everyday lives."- Michael Berg
Michael Berg is co-director of the Kabbalah Centre.

(From Gwyneth Paltrow's Blog GOOP)