Ashem Vohu

Exactly!!!
There is a POINT to why Zoroastrians for 3,700 years have spoken of Asha as something to respect and hold sacred and Ashem Vohu as something to do and to love. The world operates the way it does (according to asha, according to functionality, according to that which fits or that which works) and No 1 is to find out what is asha (natural) and what is not (the supernatural, which we as Mazdayasni are not interested in) and THEN make a decision to act upon this knowledge (to think, speak and do good asha, ashem vohu, to be proper cultural beings). In modern philosophy this is called pure ethics.
I also believe that Asha is what conmects with Ahura and Ashem Vohu connects with Mazda in Ahura Mazda, the most genial divinity ever invented.
This is also why I have always said that Zoroastrianism is a purely ethical and not a moral religion.
For the sake of Ushta and Haurvatat
- Dölj citerad text -

Alexander

2009/2/7 Parviz Varjavand

Dear Alex,

Thank you for doing it to me anyway what I begged you not to do in my P.S. What you write now is exactly the point I have been trying to make for so long. You were taking off in the direction of Functionality as a definition for the Best of Asha last. Functionality may not be the Best Of Asha. Fascism may be a more functional form of government than Democracy, but it is not the Best. Neither is the Absolute Asha, the "There is only ONE path and that is the path of Asha" kind of Asha the answer to the riddle of what Asha- Vahishta is in the mental world.

The answer, as far as I am concerned, is that there are many Ashas out there in the Minoo (Mental) world. You line them up and choose the best that you think will give you your best Ushta. The most Functional one may not give you your highest Ushta. That is what I think the meaning of Ashem Vohoo is and this is also why I think it is the most sophisticated declaration of freedom of thought that anybody has come up with yet.

A very Functional Asha be upon you, and may it have much Ushta in it for you too!
Parviz


--- On Sat, 2/7/09, Alexander Bard wrote:

From: Alexander Bard
Subject: Re: [Ushta] Functionality, rather than truth
To: Ushta@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, February 7, 2009, 6:13 AM


Actually, theft is far more common in cultures where hands of thieves are being cut off than it is in countries like Japan and Switzerland where tight communal bounds bind people together in a feeling if interpendence and responsibility for each other. I believe Japan and Switzerland illustrate better what is good asha. Even if it seems the good asha towards the issue of thievery comes at the price of an uninspiring culture artistically according to our dear Dino. ;-)
Ushta
Alexander

2009/2/7 Parviz Varjavand

Dear readers,

Theft is a bad thing. We all wish to stop thievery.

There are courts that based on instructions from sacred sources have found an Asha that cures theft!? In lands where this Asha or Law is applied, theft stops dramatically and abruptly. The Asha they have discovered is very simple, they cut off the hand of the person who steals.

Yes, there is Asha in the mental realm. I claim that cutting off the hands of thieves is one such Asha. It is very very Functional too. I challenge anybody to show me why it is not an Asha.

Ushta,
Parviz
P.S. Don't give me that it is Asha, but it is not the Best of Asha. It is more than ten years that I have been trying to illustrate this one point alone ;-(