The Spirit of Truth is Truth, not our conceptual perception of something true, so if we remain attached to perception, what we have is perception, not Truth, nor the Spirit of Truth. Awakening to the Spirit of Truth transcends perception but includes intuitive apperception which wisdom infuses in the Spirit. Truth is not something or nothing, nor is it exhausted by speech or silence, because the function of wisdom is to transcend yet include both speech and silence. Wisdom discerns Truth in the Spirit wherever it turns, inspiring saints to call Truth glory, because wisdom reveals glory through the Truth of the Name. Truth is not definable in words yet is expressible in speech, but is also expressible in silence, which is why prophecy prays as it speaks, inspiring silent, spiritual prayer in stillness. Wisdom pierces through words straight to Truth, yet uses words to point beyond words to Truth. Elders who partake of wisdom renew Holy Orthodox Tradition by communicating the living Truth, for Truth is glory, deifying and glorifying the saints.
Truth, for the Spirit of Truth, is glory and glory is God in act in his uncreated energies, not something conditioned, which can be grasped with concepts. Glory is boundless joy both as awareness and presence, being the priceless pearl of the Gospel that wisdom unveils in glory. Those who discover the pearl do not cling to conceptual opinion but uncover Truth wherever they turn. It is not words as words that are Truth, although Truth can be communicated with the help of words, because Truth is also imparted in wordless silence. Elders show saints how to transcend words but embody their meaning, which is what ‘ineffable words’ are able to do. The Apostle Paul heard ‘ineffable words’ in the third heaven, passing on their meaning as glory, not just as words. Ineffable words point beyond themselves to their ineffable meaning, which is uncreated glory. Hesychast seers communicate ineffable meaning when they bear witness to glory, restoring infinite glory to God. The Spirit of Truth is pure, purifying the heart, radiant with uncreated light illumining the mind in the heart, replete with uncreated glory, deifying saints with uncreated power.
Christ is encountered through the Spirit in the truth of his Name, revealing glory to wisdom with every turn. To abide in Christ is to transcend extremes of affirmative definition and negative denial, revealing the transfiguring function of ineffable wisdom. Translucent clarity sees as wisdom sees, no longer seeking what was lost but rejoicing in what is found when wisdom reveals glory. Wisdom turns the light of awareness round to awaken to glory in uncreated light, stepping back to see as wisdom sees, centring down where glory dwells. Turning, metanoia, is so much more than physical prostration or moral penance, or even an important change of opinion, because wisdom illumines the heart with uncreated light, deifying saints in uncreated glory. Self-emptying seeing, theoria, empties out everything obscuring the action of grace, stepping back into uncreated glory that deifies the saints. Stubborn pride persistently turns away from God, whereas humble trust turns back, remembering God, restoring God-centred wisdom in the image of God. True turning returns in the Spirit to the Truth of the Spirit, regenerating creation anew in uncreated light, unveiling infinite glory.