Your Nous is not Your Mind

 "I believe that the greatest problem of western philosophy is that it identifies the nous with reason and intellectual knowledge with existential knowledge. Even contemporary scholars in the West point to this fact."

- Metropolitan Hierotheos, "Orthodox Psychotherapy", Preface to the English Translation, pg 13

There is no straight English equivalent for nous in English. It is in no English Bible that I am aware of. Words like "mind", "mind's eye", "perception", etc, are used instead, even though Greek has many different words we translate out to mind. And yet it is of primary importance that one understand what nous is, how it works, where it's referenced in the New Testament, and that it is not your mind. Your mind is a filter. Your nous is what lets you perceive.

Here's where it's used, thanks to Blue Letter Bible's Concordance. Notice how many words we use in English to try and translate this thing! And that's just one word! All translators are traitors; no matter how hard a translator tries he will never be able to get the full meaning of the text passed on. If you're going to seriously examine any text that is translated, that you need to get at least somewhat familiar with the original(s). Truth takes work.

To the best of my knowledge Paul's use of "nous", while it seems to be in line with most ancient thought, has been co-opted to mean merely rational thought today. 

No civilization I know of thought of knowledge as being merely rational. 

The Enlightenment's idea that all of history has been leading to an era of "science" and reason is an invention. A fabrication, even less helpful than a modern idea of the fairy-tale. The Golden Bough, which popularized this nonsense, was thoroughly mocked by scholars of that time (well-sourced Wikipedia for the win!) for being a phantasy (spelling changed to identify the word more closely with a similar word, phantasm, or illusion). Despite its findings having no basis in fact the damage was done; the 20th century exploded with these ideas. At least fairy tales tell us things that are true that we cannot find very easily in the material world. They tell us things that are true, no matter what our eyes tell us. Because, as any one who is being honest will admit, eyes lie all the time. The notion that minds are chiefly rational is relatively new and has no absolutely no basis in any sort of scientific (the process of observation - hypothesis - test - analysis- rinse and repeat) process. At all.

Sorry. 

It's a lie. The 19th century, popularized through the Golden Bough, forced literally every single ancient text through their bullshit lens and we've been force-feeding ourselves their nonsense for the last few hundred years. Our understanding of God has been so mucked with that our modern religious experience has been almost completely neutered.

Because nous does not mean mind, psyche. Nous, when used in British English, means "common sense", alertness. I want to stress that last word, because it's the closest equivalent to the meaning of nous that I know of in English. The nous is aware of everything. It tracks emotions, thoughts, feelings, fantasies, the whole shebang. 

It also hears that small, quiet, Voice, which no honest Christian can deny. 

That Voice of Peace, which is fearsomely powerful. "Soft as iron, safe as lions," as Jon Foreman puts it. 

Because alertness does not mean "filtering". It just means you're alert. Your mind decides what is legitimate to follow up on. To filter and to be aware are two different functions. To say that the thoughts in your head are the only legitimate thing to follow up on is so laughably bad (even by modern standards!) that all it takes is to point this basic fact out to shatter the illusion at once. 

Your feelings are hardly rational, but they are just as important, if not more important, than most thoughts generated to control your world. Feelings cannot be controlled and muzzled. You must live with them. That small, still, Voice that can be heard is definitely not rational and couldn't give a flying fig about what we think makes sense. It simply states the truth, no matter how hard it is for us to stomach it.

Your mind can filter the nous. It is not the nous itself. 

Small perceptions create small minds create small miserable worlds. Small minds can only focus on small things, but the pressure created by weeding out all but rational thought is so intense it can create disasters unheard of before. 

Y'know, like this one:

But don't worry, we're safe from religious wars, which only comprise 7% of all recorded wars. At least we've got that.