Padre Seraphim Rose

En el libro sobre la vida del Padre Seraphim Rose (n. Eugene Dennis Rose) que estoy leyendo, "Not of this World. The Life and Teachings of Fr. Seraphim Rose. Pathfinder to the Heart of Ancient Christianity" se comenta la influencia de Guenon en su formacion. Tambien su periodo junto a Allan Watts que tanto influiria en la generacion del 60 a quien describe como "phony."

De Guenon dice lo siguiente:

"The influence of Guenon on Eugene's spiritual development can hardly be understimated. All other writers whose works he pondered in his early years including Nietzsche and Watts- represented only a phase from him; but Guenon actually formed him for life."

Whereas Watts was allways trying to show everything western was inferior to what was in the East, Guenon demostrated that the problem lay not in the West itself, but in the modernist spirit that had taken over the West. Whereas Watts was first of all critic of the West, Guenon was first of all critic of modernity.

Actually, Guenon wrote, religion being essentially a form of tradition, the anti-traditional spirit cannot help being anti-religious; it begins by denaturing religion and ends by suppressing altogether, wherever it is able to do so. Protestantism is illogical from the fact that, while doing it utmost to 'humanize' religion, it nevertheless permits the survival, at least theoretically, of a supra-human element, namely revelation; it hesitates to drive negation to its logical conclusion, but by exposing revelation to all discussions which follow in the wake of purely human interpretations, it does in fact reduce it practically to nothing."

El Padre reconoce otra influencia la de su maestro de filosofia china Gi-ming Shien, que tuvo que emigrar a America a raiz del comunismo. Gi-ming tenia una solida formacion filosofica y pertenecia a una familia de la aristocracia china perseguida por el comunismo. Denuncia en su escape la destruccion barbarica del comunismo de numerosos textos pertenecientes a la tradicion cultural y religiosa china. Vease "Traditional Wisdom and Revolutionary Philosophy in Contemporary China."

Gi-ming le decia " What a man is is revealed in his personal manner. The manner is not important in itself, but as it reveals the man..."

"The end of learning is to be a good man...Of primary importance this is a teacher and a friend since the goeal of education is not concepts, but personal change of character. In the teacher and friend is a living personal example. Only a spirit can infleunce a spirit."

"Like Guenon, Gi-ming emphasized the contrast not between East and West, but between ancient and modern."


De Gi-ming encontramos algunos articulos en J-Stor. De su vida nos se nos dice otra cosa que :

"A humble man, later faded in obscurity. As a genuine teacher who failed from a worldly point of view, he stood in direct contrast to Watts, a phoney who became enormously succesful. Eugene chose the former, and the world ran after the later."