[ii] ” Zoroaster…”

“Zoroaster, the prophet and poet sees the universe as the cosmic struggle between aša “truth” and druj “lie.” The cardinal concept of aša – which is highly nuanced and only vaguely translatable – is at the foundation of all other Zoroastrian doctrine, including that of Ahura Mazda (who is aša), creation (that is aša), existence (that is aša) and Free Will, which is arguably Zoroaster’s greatest contribution to religious philosophy.  The purpose of humankind, like that of all other creation, is to sustain aša. For humankind, this occurs through active participation in life and the exercise of good thoughts, words and deeds.

The name Zoroaster was famous in classical antiquity, and a number of different Zoroasters – all described as having occult powers – appear in historiographic accounts.

In Pliny’s Natural History, Zoroaster is said to have laughed on the day of his birth. He lived in the wilderness and enjoyed exploring it from a young age. Plutarch compares him with Lycurgus and Numa Pompilius (Numa, 4). Plutarch, drawing partly on Theopompus, speaks of Zoroaster in Isis and Osiris: In this work, the prophet is empowered by trust in his God and the protection of his allies. He faces outward opposition and unbelief, and inward doubt.

The works of Zoroaster had a significant influence on Greek philosophy and Roman philosophy. The ancient Greek writer Eudoxus of Cnidus and the Latin writer Pliny the Elder praised Zoroaster’s philosophy as “the most famous and most useful.” Plato learnt of Zoroaster’s philosophy through Eudoxus and incorporated some of it into his own Platonic realism. In the third century BC, however, Colotes accused Plato’s The Republic of plagiarizing parts of (what is attributed to) Zoroaster’s On Nature, such as the Myth of Er. Plato’s contemporary, Heraclides Ponticus, wrote a text called Zoroaster based on Zoroaster’s philosophy in order to express his disagreement with Plato on natural philosophy.

Zoroaster was mentioned by the nineteenth-century poet William Butler Yeats. His wife and he were said to have claimed to have contacted Zoroaster through “automatic writing.”

The 2005 edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy places Zoroaster first in a chronology of philosophers.”

– Reference:  Wikipedia.org

[iii] “… an IS-BE called Ahura Mazda.”

“Ahura Mazda (Ahura Mazdā) is the Avestan language name for a divinity exalted by Zoroaster as the one uncreated Creator, hence God.  He is the nameless “Father Asura”, that is, Varuna of the Rigveda. In this view, Zoroastrian mazda is the equivalent of the Vedic medhira, described in Rigveda 8.6.10 as the “(revealed) insight into the cosmic order”.

Ahura Mazda is seen as the Ahura par excellence, superior to both *vouruna and *mitra, and the nameless “Father Asura” of the Rigveda and is a distinct divinity. The Zoroastrian faith is thus described by its adherents as Mazdayasna, the worship of Mazda. In the Avesta, “Ahura Mazda is the highest object of worship”.

– Reference:  Wikipedia.org