The heart of the matter

"You brood of vipers!  How can you speak good, when you are evil?  For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." - Matthew 12:34

We often think that what we say originates in our mind.  But that isn't true.  What emerges from our mouths really comes from the heart.  If we have a good heart, we'll speak words of kindness and encouragement.  If our heart is always thinking of evil, then we'll speak angry words or words that curse another.  In general, someone who speaks vulgarities and crude 4-letter words is an angry person who lacks love.

The Chinese got it right.  The Chinese term for mind is 心思意念.  It is made up of 4 different characters that all have the same root radical, 心 or "heart".  If you look carefully at the 4 characters, the bottom part of the last 3 characters are the same as the 1st character, which is "heart".

The 4 characters are: 
 心 - heart
思 - think or consider
意 - idea, meaning, wish, desire, intention
念 - read, idea, remembrance

Taken as a whole, 心思意念 means thoughts or thinking.  But, our heart and mind cannot be separated from each other.  What we feel affects our thinking and our speech.  After all, we're whole beings, not pieces of flesh and organs all separated from each other.

So, let's take some good advice from a wise man and "keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life." (King Solomon, Proverbs 4:23)

Wishing you happy thoughts always!