Truth, "Correctness," and the Royal Path in Fr. Seraphim Rose 

God help us on this path fraught with many temptations.

This is an important post. The one who has the right knowledge without the true heart can fall into Pharisaism. May Christ bless your work for the narrow path.

Elder Philotheos Zervakos, wanted to join the church ( correct ) calendar, but meeting with those in Greece of the old calendarist and hearing such harsh tone towards the people of the new, he then returned back to practicing the new. I'm saying this in support of making clear of what Fr Seraphim was talking about, Tim. That over correct tone/attitude he was so against. He was of course never against what was considered right and speaking the truth, but when it only came across in a condemning tone and by it, elevating oneself.

Fr. Seraphim was reacting to the correctness or super correctness of the Bostonian's, fr. Panteleimon , Ephraim (htm) and fr. Lazar Paulo. The ROCOR Synod even put a stop to the bickering, especially in regards to toll houses

When I was in an ecumenist, so-called "monastic" religious community in Catholicism the Abbot discouraged me from reading Blessed Seraphim Rose. I can understand now why not only because in so many ways he refutes Catholicism but also because the members of that community were plagued by the disease of correctness that Blessed Seraphim Rose refers to. Every time I hear someone talk about this I cannot help but think about those ecumenists.

I wish that this except was a few minutes longer. I suppose it wets the appetite to watch the longer conversation.

Am I to understand that Father Seraphim was not given an Orthodox baptism when he accepted the faith? He was baptized as a Protestant earlier in his life?

When we knowingly sin we allow darkness into our spiritual mind, the nous - this has to change for real enlightment to occur, true mind-correction and ''getting the divine mind of Christ''. Darkness of the spiritual mind or heart repels God no matter how correct our views or teachings may be. If the way to the knowledge becomes sinful / anti-virtuous, it repels God Himself who only allows the virtuous to partake of His grace - and then without God, the destination is ultimately not more knowledge but rather darkness, confusion, ignorance, lack of knowledge of God, lack of grace. Also with the use of ones knowledge one can either do good or evil. St Silouan said theology i.e. holy knowledge without holy virtue / repentance / following the commandments is demonic even if it is Orthodox theology. And so yes the holy ethos as well as the holy truth / dogma / doctrine must be attained to, one cannot exist without the other because they are both revelations / gifts of God. When one side of our healing is problematic, the other side is also effected, because God demands balance, sensibility, spiritual "sanity" (of the nous). When God is rejected in the ways of our heart (which we are in control of), the quest for knowledge leads to delusion or deception, because of the spiritual heart-mind interconnection. The real destination of the holy way is Christ Himself, to get to Him - but not just to Him, but to get to His good favour, since in the end all will be brought to Him, resurrected, to be judged. If the objective changes to something else which is beneath Christ the Lord then we fall away from enlightenment of the Holy Spirit, we lose Wisdom Himself, Christ the Wisdom of the Father, which provides all truth and order to creation, we stumble away toward darkness. Our way of life, on the other hand, cannot come into alignment with God without the holy knowledge / theology available, since by nature we are fallen and do not understand divine revelation without God's direct license. So if we try our best to be like the Saints but we are heretics in various regards, we do not confess the proper faith of God, then that is also a way to loss of knowledge, confusion, deception, etc. We need both correction of the mind and the heart of the soul simultaneously, not one to the detriment of the other which leads to conflict with the will of God. Super correctness is essentially a fixation on transforming the mind, holy enlightenment, without purification of the heart, so that is demonic despite it being leagues better than anything else in the protestant or roman catholic world (for example)... Thanks Father Peter @ Tim

By "mostly correct wrong in tone" it is because Fr. Panteliemon was being cold hearted. Fr. Seraphim still backed true Orthodoxy.