The Watchful Gate - Applying Patristic Discernment to Modern Contemplative Study

Understanding Eastern Christian Contemplation And Non-Dual Eastern Contemplative Religions

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:48:41 -0700

Reader John Simmons gave a talk at Archangel Bookstore in San Francisco on January 15th, 2010, titled "Understanding Eastern Christian Contemplation And Non-Dual Eastern Contemplative Religions". This talk roughly encapsulated much of the material on the Watchful Gate Site, focusing on the comparisons and contrasts between contemplative paths: why there is so much similarity and what the important differences are. He also gave examples of the pattern observed by many at the Watchful Gate: Buddhists and other non-dual seekers who find the fulfillment of their search in the Ancient Christian teachings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers. Another version of this talk may become available later.

"Christ The Eternal Tao" Seminar Media Now Online!

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:45:17 -0700

The "Christ The Eternal Tao" Seminar announced below took place in Costa Mesa, and now photos and streaming audio of the event is online, with video clips soon to be added.

Access the media for the event here:

Christ the Eternal Tao with Hieromonk Damascene

Christ the Eternal Tao - Fall Seminar with Hieromonk Damascene

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:25:51 -0600

Christ the Eternal Tao, which is a book by Hieromonk Damascene of the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery, will be used as the basis for a weekend seminar in Costa Mesa, CA.

Learn how Eastern Orthodox Christian spirituality provides seekers of our day clear guidance on acquiring stillness, overcoming the passions, dealing with thoughts, and cultivating the virtues, as well as precise teachings on spiritual deception which guides seekers more safely and surely on the path to communion with God (Tao – Chinese). In the profound mystical and contemplative tradition of the Christian East, seekers are able to go well beyond the realizations in Eastern religions. It will be a long – awaited answer for those who, having turned away from modern Western religiosity, are drawn to the freshness, directness and simplicity of Lao Tzu and eastern philosophies, and at the same time are strangely, inexplicably drawn back to the all-compelling reality of Jesus Christ.

Hieromonk Damascene (Christensen) is an Eastern Orthodox priest, monk and spiritual child of ascetic and spiritual struggler Bl. Father Seraphim Rose, of St Herman of Alaska Monastery, Platina, California. Fr Damascene is the author of Fr Seraphim Rose: His Life And Works and Christ The Eternal Tao, as well as numerous articles on Eastern Orthodox faith, doctrine and spirituality.

Raised a nominal Christian, Fr Damascene came to believe that a personal God or gods was a “less enlightened” spiritual Truth than that of the Trans-Personal experience taught in Buddhism. Through his practice of Zen Buddhism, he experienced what he describes as “darkness, infinite nothingness, existing outside of space and time, where everything is Now and time has no meaning.” After having this experience, he met Father Seraphim Rose lecturing on his college campus (UC Santa Cruz). Fr Seraphim had been a student of Zen with Alan Watts, and of Taoism under a genuine transmitter of the Taoist philosophical tradition, Gi-ming Shen, before becoming an Eastern Orthodox Christian convert and monk. Through an on-going relationship with Fr Seraphim, who became his spiritual father, Monk Damascene came to discover that the Truth was not just an abstract idea, sought and known by the mind, but was something personal – even a Person – sought and loved by the heart. As he later wrote, “And that is how I met Christ.” He was at Fr Seraphim’s bedside when he reposed less than two years later.

Not satisfied with a “normal or average” Christian experience, Fr Damascene went to live in the Northern California woods where Fr Seraphim lived, in his old wooden cabin, to be united with Christ without distraction. He has lived at St Herman of Alaska Monastery for over 25 years.

He does not often visit the Los Angeles-Orange County area to give lectures. This is a rare opportunity for seekers to learn about the “Way of Heaven, the Course that all things are to follow, and to return to the original state, the Primal Simplicity, at one with nature, which is the original designation of mankind.” (From an article in The Orthodox Way)

2009 Fall Seminar

From Eastern and New Age Metaphysics to Orthodox Christianity

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:16:20 -0700

Veronica Hughes on the Illumined Heart Program (Ancient Faith Radio)

Veronica Hughes was a 20-year seeker, practitioner, and teacher of hatha yoga, EST, Hinduism, occult, metaphysics, psychic healing, out of body travel, spirit channeling, Tibetan Buddhism, and Theosophy before re-discovering her childhood faith in Christ in the Orthodox Church. On a new The Illumined Heart, she and host Kevin Allen discuss her search for personal transformation and what led her to eastern Christianity.

New Book: The Gurus, The Young Man and Elder Paisios

Wed, 10 Dec 2008 16:17:53 -0700

The Gurus, The Young Man and Elder Paisios

A young man searched for the truth, not seeking the dead capital of the intellect alone, but wanted the experiential and unmediated contact with a higher reality if he could find it. He studied Yoga (in the full sense of the word) and meditation, met with magick, occult and spiritual teachers, and studied other contemporary approaches such as the Silva method, until he began to experience real spiritual phenomena. Not all such phenomena was of the same level or even helpful, so he continued to search until he could determine how to discern a path which would be the most transformative in a beneficial way.

God's Revelation To The Human Heart - Lecture by Fr. Seraphim Rose Now Online

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 21:19:03 -0700

Fr. Seraphim Rose gave a notable lecture at the University of Santa Cruz in 1981, just a year before he reposed, to a class which was a survey of world religions. Several people found this lecture (alongside another that was given) to be life changing for them. Amidst the spiritual smorgasboard that was UC Santa Cruz, Fr. Seraphim stood out. The lecture which is now available in streaming form, is preceded by an introduction by Fr. Damascene Christiansen, and the lecture is read by a member of the St. Herman Brotherhood for the first several minutes (this part of the lecture wasn't taped). Then the audio switches, and you can hear the rest of the lecture as given by Fr. Seraphim.

Interviews with Hieromonk Damascene and Abbot Gerasim

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 12:12:39 -0600

On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of Hieromonk Seraphim Rose, Ancient Faith Radio has made a special edition of "The Illumined Heart" radio program available for download. You can also find it here on the Watchful Gate, on the Fr. Seraphim Rose Page. These are really excellent and worth listening to, whatever your interests are at the watchful gate.

St. Gregory of Nanzianzus on Mindfulness and Breathing

Tue, 17 Apr 2007 17:34:56 -0600

"It is more important to remember God than it is to remember to breathe."

On Inner Peace (both True and False):

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 09:44:08 -0700

"Whenever in your path you find unchanging peace, beware: You are very far from the divine paths trodden by the weary feet of the saints. For as long as you are journeying in the way to the city of the Kingdom and are drawing nigh the city of God, this will be a sign for you: the strength of the tempations that you encounter. And the nearer you draw nigh and Progress, the more temptations will multiply against you."

-St. Issac the Syrian, Ascetical Homilies, from Homily 42

Thesis on Lao Tzu by Eugene Rose (The Future Fr. Seraphim) Now Online

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 06:52:24 -0700

Before he entered the Orthodox Church and became Fr. Seraphim Rose, Eugene Rose went to San Francisco to study Zen at the Academy founded by Alan Watts. After exposure to both the best known Zen masters and teachers in the country as well as Alan Watts' "hipster Zen" and the Beats, Eugene, went on to study Taoism under Gi Ming Shien. This document, his resulting Berkeley Masters thesis, shows his intellectual progress up to the point before he discovered Orthodox Christianity.

This is a large PDF, scanned from a copy, which preserves Eugene's Orthography of Chinese characters right on the typewritten page.

Welcome to the New Watchful Gate

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 22:18:42 -0700

I am finally migrating content from the quick and ugly pages I created "just to get something in place", to the Drupal CMS which offers a lot of options, and better maintainence for these pages. More new content should follow soon!

-John Simmons, Watchful Gate Webmaster