APPENDIX
NOUS,
NOETIC ENERGY & HEART, ACCORDING TO OUR HOLY FATHERS
Our
nous has to be in our heart.
The
nous is the priest, and the heart is the inner altar of man, and it
should be devoted to God.
The
human nous, according to our Church Fathers, has to be inside us, in
our heart, and should be praying there ceaselessly (be officiating,
conducting a ceaseless Divine Liturgy in the inner altar of the human
heart).
The
nous is not supposed to be scattered outwards through the senses, but
ought to “come to oneself” (or to one’s senses, like the
prodigy son).
This
means that the energy of the human nous, which is scattered through
the senses into the environment, has to return to the essence (ousia)
of the nous, which is located inside the human heart.
We
point out here the following facts about what we discern in the human
soul:
- essence, which is located in the heart (and is called “deep heart”) and
- energy (which is called noetic energy).
The
noetic energy is operating in the heart of the spiritually healthy as
noetic ceaseless prayer (nous), and in the brain as intellect
(logic).
Then,
when this returning of the nous to the heart is completed, the nous,
through itself, “ascends to the meaning of God”. Then, the noetic
energy functions properly. Then, the nous, according to our Holy
Fathers, functions/operates naturally (by the laws of nature, κατά
φύσιν).
In
Patristic
Theology,
a book containing his main points from his university lectures, Fr.
John Romanides teaches: “The
curing of the human soul is the main concern of the Orthodox Church.
The Church was always healing the human soul. She found out (by
examining the Hebrew tradition and from Christ Himself and the
Apostles) that there is something operating within the space of our
physical heart, which our Holy Fathers called nous.
So,
they took the traditional nous, which used to mean the intellect
(doiania) and logos (word) and differentiated: they named nous
the noetic energy that operates inside the heart of a spiritually
healthy person. We do not know when this differentiation took place,
because there are some Church Fathers, who use the same term, nous,
when they talk about logic (the intellect) and about the noetic
energy as well, when it comes down and operates in the space of the
heart.
So,
through this perspective, the
noetic energy is the one and only energy of the human soul, which
operates as logic, when it is in the human brain, and simultaneously
operates as nous in the human heart.
In other words, the same organ, the human nous, prays ceaselessly in
the heart (only in people who have acquired the ceaseless noetic
prayer) and, at the same time, solves mathematical problems or
anything else, by operating in the human brain.”
The
returning of the nous to the heart and the returning of the energy to
the essence are many times mentioned in the works of our Holy
Fathers. St.
Basil the Great
says that the nous who is not scattered outwards and is not diffused
by the senses out into the world, returns to itself and, through
itself, it ascends to the meaning of God. And, after that,
peripherically glown and from within by the beauty of God, by the
Divine Grace, by the uncreated Light of God, this nous has no earthly
concern anymore and even forgets about the physical needs for
survival. In other words, such a person neither worries stressfully
about their food provisions; neither cares about what clothes to
wear.
The
returning of the human nous from its diffusion (scatter) to the
heart, which is the returning of the noetic energy back to its
essence, is the cure of the nous, its restoration to its natural
function.
Then, our
heart gets purified by practicing the ceaseless noetic prayer in the
heart, and inside this purified heart comes the Blessed Dweller, the
All-Holy Spirit, with His fruit: love, joy, peace, longsuffering etc.
When this happens, all previously present negative consequences of
our sinfulness disappear: our selfishness, the sorrow caused by the
selfishness, and depression as well!
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