The Meaning of Minoo

Dear Ardeshir

As an avid and long-time reader and student of Hegel, Hegel was adamant that "Geist" was 100% a material and physical phenomenon and consequently 100% mind. "Geist" is HOW MIND SEES ITSELF to Hegel. And no matter how fantastic that is, it is 100% body, 100% material and 100% physical. No supernatural mumbo-jumbo involved at all.
To say that translating minoo as mind is a monumental mistake is therefore a rather hysterical statement if you ask me. Can we please save expressions as "monumental mistake" for what is indeed monumental mistakes instead?
The APPRECIATION of Mind is what makes Zoroastrianism unique, but there is no belief whatsoever in The Gathas in a mind that is supernatural. It does not have to be. Nature is fantastic as it is, that is precisely why it is sacred to Zarathushtra. Ou AWE and ADMIRATION is directed towards creation itself as the expression of Ahura Mazda.
Please don't throw Plato into Zoroastrianism afterwards. Plato was an Egyptian-Greek philosopher. He lived 1,200 years after Zarathushtra! The true Iranian-Greek philosopher was Heraclitus, Plato's opponent, who was a strict monist.

Ushta
Alexander

2010/1/19 ardeshir farhmand

Dear Ushta Members

Parviz,

translating minoo as mind is a monumental mistake. true, minoo and mind are cognates.
yet minoo is "passion, energy, spirit, awareness and consciousness.
the meaning of minoo as spirit/awareness is present in all ancient indo-european languages.
minoo encompassess mind, but is much more than that, and it IS NOT just brain cells.
the concept behind minoo is very similar, if not identical to HEGELIAN GEIST/spirit.
the farsi minoo and manesh has pretty much retained their original meaning.yet when translators decided to translate it into the cognate MIND/MENTALITY the problem has arisen. for example english ghost and german geist are cognates. but if u translate the Hegelian concept of geist into english ghost, i am certain that u miss the whole point about Hegelian Philosophy.

Furthermore, Denkart reaffirms that awareness/consciousness is the building block/creative energy/essence of the universe. This idea IS pretty CONSISTENT with the poetic gathas.

the idea is that the universe is the physical form and manifestaion of pure knowledge and awareness.

Ardeshir