The Watchful Gate

Welcome to the Watchful Gate.  This site is the result of several peoples' study and experiences in trying to find reality in contemplative spirituality.  Many of us have traveled through many typically modern spiritual searches and practices.  We have been traditional Christians and Buddhists or non-traditional minimalists seeking after the essence of things (e.g. via Gurdjieff, Krishnamurti, or our entirely own non-dual perspective).  Some of us in the process have become Orthodox Christians, and discovered a wealth of understanding that many seekers of contemplative spirituality are unaware of, but in our opinion, truly have need of.  

In studying Orthodox Christian sources, we have discovered that we in the West have been subjected to a long slow decline in understanding basic realities that govern the soul.  What is often taken for granted in other cultures as truth, has been nearly completely lost in our own.  This has been due to to several factors: the rationalistic and legalistic mindset of the West since the Roman Empire, the rapid rise of science, the loss of the complete teachings of authentic Christian spirituality, and the misunderstanding of ancient teachings due to the loss of what could be called "inner culture."  In this sense, postmodern criticism is often a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Many of us have sensed this loss of spiritual reality and the presence of psychological imbalances in our culture.  For this reason, whole generations of us have searched for spiritual reality in traditions or non-traditions that are foreign to the Western culture we grew up in, but are becoming part of it.  Others of us, have tried to find real contemplative life in Western traditions, but often in contexts that are so different from where these contemplative paths originated, that we stumble on without suspecting that something is missing.

We have discovered that the ancient Christian spiritual life manifested by the desert fathers and mothers is still alive today.  Some of us learned this miraculously, and others by perfectly ordinary means.  But one of the treasures which is offered to us from this tradition, which is most needed by the contemplative of modern times is discernment. Without discernment, it is possible to believe that one is encountering profound contemplative experiences, when in fact, one is encountering what some modern Holy Fathers have termed "refined sensuality."  It is therefore a matter of life and death, to have discernment and reality at the base of one's contemplative journey.  We believe that the information on this site will point modern contemplatives in the right direction, and will provide pieces that are missing from contemporary inter-religious dialogue.

Sincerely,

The Watchful Gate Staff