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"What sustains our life is love (the hesychastic fathers call the Holy Spirit the ερος (eros, longing) between the Father and the Son, and through the Son, between us and the Father. It's what keeps our life (soul) from extinguishing itself. A soul that sins (rejects God) dies, sasy the OT." Indeed they did. I recommend "Topics of Natural and Theological Science" in the Philokalia as an informative and challenging read for Westerners. "The Spirit of the supreme Logos is a kind of ineffable yet intense longing or 'eros' experienced by the Begetter for the Logos born ineffably from Him, a longing experienced also by the beloved Logos and Son of the Father for His Begetter; but the Logos possesses this love by virtue of the fact that it comes from the Father in the very act through which He comes from the Father, and it resides co-naturally in Him. It is from the Logos's discourse with us through His incarnation that we have learned what is the name of the Spirit's distinct mode of coming to be from the Father and that the Spirit belongs not only to the Father but also to the Logos. For He says 'the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father' (John 15:26), so that we may know that from the Father comes not solely the Logos - who is begotten from the Father - but also the Spirit who proceeds from the Father. Yet the Spirit belongs also to the Son, who receives Him from the Father as the Spirit of Truth, Wisdom and Logos. For Truth and Wisdom constitute a Logos that befits His Begetter, a Logos that rejoices with the Father as the Father rejoices in Him. This accords with the words that He spoke through Solomon:'I was She who rejoiced together with Him' (Prov. 8:30). Solomon did not say simply 'rejoiced' but 'rejoiced together with'. This pre-eternal rejoicing of the Father and the Son is the Holy Spirit who, as I said, is common to both, which explains why He is sent from both to those who are worthy. Yet the Spirit has His existence from the Father alone, and hence He proceeds as regards His existence only from the Father. Our intellect, because created in God's image, possesses likewise the image of this sublime Eros or intense longing - an image expressed in the love experienced by the intellect for the spiritual knowledge that originates from it and continually abides in it." +Gregory Palamas Says a lot about Holy Orthodoxy and an Orthodox mindset doesn't it, Kosta!

+Gregory Palamas Says a lot about Holy Orthodoxy and an Orthodox mindset doesn't it, Kosta!

He defines it. Hesychastic teaching is the official orthodox Church doctrine, and +Gregory Palamas has a lot to do with it's recognition.

Every time I read the hesychastic fathers, I am reminded that it is the West where the sun sets and where darkness is discerned. Symbolism is a powerful teacher.