Guiding principles...

Dear Helen

What you seem to be missing is a Zoroastrian MORALITY.
But there is no such thing. Zoroastrians have SUCCESSFULLY lived without a morality for 3,700 years and seeing the misery morality has caused to their neighbors they certainly have no desire whatsoever to introduce a baseless morality NOW. We ahve no ten commandments and there is a REASON for that. It is also a cause of our immense pride.
Rather, Zoroastrians are ETHICAL people, even obsessed with ethics.
You are what you think, you are what you say, you are what you do. If you think, speak and act differently from what you DESIRE to be, then go ahead and CHANGE your thoughts, language and actions. That's Zarathushtra's message in a nutshell that we repeat and meditate over again and again, every day of our lives.
That's all. Now you just need to learn to live with that (or in your case, learn to UNDERSTAND that).
If you miss morality that much (since morality makes life easy to live, but ultimately a fake life) then go somewhere else. The world is full of stupid moralisms. They will welcome you with open arms with their "ready-to-go" religions. But to us the question and the answer remain:
- What is the right or the wrong to do?
- Well, that always DEPENDS ON THE SITUATION.
That's ethics for you, hardcore Zoroastrian ethics!!!

Ushta
Alexander

2009/3/3 Helen Gerth

Dear Dino,

You say "But there are certain guidelines and ideas
that I'm attracted to..."

My sense often is of a contemporary Zoroastrianism that has exceptionally few guidelines when it is described by some....and sometimes your discussions seem more like you see Zoroastrianism as something that you can select parts as from as a philosophy rather than a religion...it lends a 'flavor' of a religion with few if any tenets or guides....

I see Asha presented in discussions as a guiding principle...but there is nothing but one's own internal sense of right and wrong for a compass...

Celebrating 'Mind' and one's own right to ethical choice and making 'good' choices is a guiding principle....but there is no clear definition of 'good' as a compass since it is up to individual interpretation...and the consequences one might be willing to tolerate are different from another's....

If you were to finish the manifesto that was started and post it on the intro to the group...what would it consist of as a clear statement of guiding principles?

These are of course the thoughts of someone who is looking for a clear cut definition of Contemporary Zoroastrianism as some see it here...and of course there may not be one as from the outside the sense I have of some discussions here is that it is in a process of transformation and is constantly evolving...though of course there are some here who have very concrete definitions of what Zoroastrianism is for them.....

Alexander - Is this perhaps something that could be set down and posted on the intro??

Ushta te,
Helen