Customer Reviews

The Spiritual Instructions of Saint Seraphim of Sarov

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I was in a hurry when ordering this book and did not realize what I was actually getting. When received I was shocked. Whoever that "bright" is, took a masterpiece of spiritual literature, twisted it and then had a nerve to claim that he has something in common with St. Seraphim of Sarov and/or Christianity. Very deceptive.

This book in The Basket of Tolerance Series, issued by the Dawn Horse Press of mystic Adi Da, gives some information on the 18th century Russian Orthodox Saint Seraphim as well as what survives of his spritual instructions. It also includes writings by and about Adi Da and Swami Ramakrishnananda. The information about Seraphim makes it clear that he was a deeply disturbed person who shunned nearly all contact with others and lived a profoundly ascetic life with no worldly joy whatever. His instructions are quite limited, quite conventional Orthodox Christian discipline and self denial and it seems unlikely they will be of use to anyone. His conversations with his disciple Nicholas Motovilov are included, but as with the "Instructions" there is no guarantee of their authenticity. The saddest part, as with nearly all devotional literature on Jesus, is the failure to understand that he was an enlightened mystic on the same path as Buddha, Rumi, Osho and many others-a path available to anyone without tormenting themselves and denying the world. "This very body the Buddha, this very earth the lotus paradise."