Page 5 No automatic evolution At this stage, human evolution is never entirely automatic. Unless ways are found of transforming the semantic nature so that we succeed in awakening the nous, a third layer does not emerge, and man remains, in a moral and emotional sense, less than the higher animals. And this transformation of our animal nature, described by Saint Paul, depends on starting from something already more than animal and more than merely verbal. But if we begin to be exposed to, and to take into ourselves, the influence of what are currently described as ‘spiritual forces,’ often found within us, a third layer begins very slowly to separate out from the psyche. This is the emergence of the nous, the faculty that makes us fully human. The nous awakens to life in the human sense, becoming increasingly aware of the activities of the semantic layer and of their moral significance. But for a long time it does not awaken to its own existence. At this time, its activity within the individual is as described by Saint Anthony. Placed under the right spiritual influences, and making certain efforts which it as yet only partly understands, it slowly corrects the way the semantic layer has been formed. “The nous then starts to discriminate between the body and the soul, as it begins to learn from the Spirit how to purify both by repentance. Then, taught through this conscious influence, the nous becomes our guide to the labours of body and soul, showing us how to purify them." ( Saint Anthony the Great ) As the nous emerges from the different activities of the psyche, it begins to become aware of itself as an invisible presence, and the more it discovers that this observation is in some sense real, the more it becomes able to break its identification with those activities. It becomes conscious of our remembered itself. This is aided by forms of prayer, which have only noetic purpose and no physical goals. All this plays a part in what P. D. Ouspensky called the psychological method of spiritual growth. |
