Framing Zoroastrianism (The Celebration of The Mind)

Dear Parviz

I agree with you 100% and I will also be happy to use the term Mazdean Zoroastrians to show which kind of Zoroastrians we are. What do you think would be an appropriate term for the movement as such? Mazdayasna? Or do you prefer Mazdeanism in English after all?

I also agree that "Mazdayasna" should be interpreted as "celebration of the mind" in modern English. The whole concept of "worship" is alien to Indo-European cultures, where religion and philosophy were intertwined and part of everyday life, an attitude towards existence more than anything.

To have "worship" you need specifically saced dates and rituals on a specific holy day of the week, for example Sunday mass or The Sabbath. We never had such practices as Zoroastrians, what we celebrated with Norwuz, Tirgan etc was not the days themselves but the CIRCLE of life, as a whole, nothing more, nothing less. So there are no traces of worship in the religious sense. Mazdean Zoroastrianism is indeed a religion of celebration and not worship.

Worship is to pray to a god asking for favors. We meditate and celebrate as to strengthen ourselves to produce the favors at our own accord. That is radically different from the worshipping faiths. So by studying our culture, our practiced beliefs, we also better understand our own terminology.

Ushta
Alexander

Parviz Varjavand wrote:

Dear Alex,

We are having talks very similar to when you started the Ushta site and we talked about what to call our new site. One needs a name and one has to choose a good one and the go forward using it.

As you remember, it was work to show that Mazda did not mean Big or God (as the bearded maker in the sky). It simply meant "Thinker" or "That which has a Mind". In that sense, man is a mini Mazda. I will still have problems in Iran because the Tehran Anjoman'e Moobedan never followed our discussions to the point that even Jafarey accepted Martin Schwartz's explanation about the linguistic lineage of Mazda. They will still insist that it means Big or Great. (Mashalh Jan, please try and explain this to the Kankash'e Moobedan, if you see it in your heart. It will be hard to tell them that Moobed Azargoshasb had got it wrong).

So, we are Mazdeans in the sense that we believe in the Mind as the best tool we have in life. Since I do not deny the existence of the minds of others or a collective Mind in creation, then I am not denying God in the sense that Deists insist one must believe in as a precaution to having ones throat cut in the middle of the night by one of them.

And we are Zoroastrians not because we worship the man or every word that is ascribed to him, but as persons that honor him as a great pathfinder on the path that we are traveling on. So, we are Mazdean Zoroastrians. This is why I feel safe with that frame to our name.

I know that I am on solid grounds linguistically when I say that Yasn is related to Jashn and means celebration, but then there is Dina and many in her school that will argue that this is not so and Yasn means worship. Like Dino, the word "worship" leaves a bad taste in my mouth and I hate to be called "Mind-Worshiper". (still searching for a name)

Parviz