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Commentary 3 - Triads Intro 5 |
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PRAXIS NOW
Darkness of
the psyche The Hermit's Message
Way of Theosis Psychological method Prayer of the heart
praxis studies
Introductory studies
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PRAXIS NOW
Darkness of
the psyche The Hermit's Message
Way of Theosis Psychological method Prayer of the heart
praxis studies
Introductory studies
LOGOUT
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NOUS AND PSYCHE From the psychological viewpoint, perhaps the most important of these words whose meaning has become fragmented are the two Greek words, nous, and psyche. Among the varied translations of these words are some that are among the most important concepts in contemporary thought. One problem is that these words overlap. For instance, in the French translation of Palamas’ Triads, both psyche and nous are at different times translated by esprit. In English both are given as mind, a common translation of esprit. With ‘mind’ are several other words that are also used to render the Greek psyche: psyche itself, untranslated but taken as the root of psychology, is one. Life is another. and ‘soul’, one of the most imprecise terms in the English language. Together with a third term – life – these present a completely fragmented intellectual picture of the human psyche. In fact nous, as described by Palamas and the fathers who had gone before him, is not just the ‘psyche’, but the conscious and aware highest part of the psyche: ‘the eye of the psyche’, the long-lost ruling heart of the human mind. It is through the actions of the undispersed and hence unfragmented whole of the nous, and of grace acting through that nous, that: “Man remains wholly man in psyche and body, and through grace becomes wholly God in psyche and body.” (Saint Maximos - See below, p??)
To understand this word psyche, we have to think about all this very carefully: 1. Psyche consists of thoughts, feelings, memories, impulses and so on which arise within us and pass through the field of our attention. We experience these things inside ourselves and never outside. Some modern thinkers, like David Bohm, call all of this ‘thought.’ Mind is sometimes taken a synonymous with psyche, sometimes in Cartesian terms, as one side of the ‘mind-body’ problem of contemporary philosophy. 2. Soul is spoken about in theory, in translations of doctrine, and in myth, but I have never met anyone who was entirely sure in what it was experienced… except as in psyche. 3. Life exists in every living creature or, in a slightly different way, in plants. Crystals grow too, but we may find it different to be sure that they are alive. The first and most obvious sign by which we recognise life is in movement, including speech. But people also seem to recognise it in the smaller movements within living creatures: in digestion; the circulation of the blood and the movement of other fluids; in the tensing of muscles; in whatever nervous activity is perceptible to us. As psyche, these three things are one in essence, but taken as appearances they seem to be entirely different one from another. What is interesting about this is that not only do these differences exist in translating one single Greek word. Careful investigation suggests that their different meanings, even in their current form as used today, still refer to one single thing: one thing with many different appearances. |
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