The evil in the teaching of Zarathustra
byMieke Mosmuller
03-02-2016
13 comments
In Anthroposophy we learn that Zarathustra was the great teacher in the Persian culture period. We must realise that Zarathustra didn't live a few centuries before Christ, but far earlier, eight thousand years ago. I quote here from a lecture of Rudolf Steiner from 1911. He gives a clear impression of this doctrine of Zarathustra.
'When we turn our attention to Zarathustra, we must look back over an infinitely long period of time. It is true that certain modern investigators have fixed the date of Zarathustra as contemporary with that of Buddha, which would mean that he lived some five or six centuries before the Christian era. It is however significant that our modern historians, after careful investigation of the traditions referring to Zarathustra, have been obliged to indicate that the personality hidden beneath the name of “Zarathustra,” the original founder of the Persian religion, must be placed a great many centuries before Buddha. Greek historians have repeatedly pointed out that Zarathustra must have lived about five or six thousand years before the Trojan War.
...
Zarathustra lived at least eight thousand years before our present era, and the gifts to civilisation which poured from his enlightened spirit shine forth clearly across the centuries. Those who penetrate into the inner currents of human evolution can detect them even after this lapse of time. Zarathustra was one of those whose soul had experienced Truth, Wisdom and Intuition to an extent far transcending the normal consciousness of the age. In that part of the Earth which later on was known as the Persian Empire, Zarathustra proclaimed mighty truths from the super-sensible worlds — regions lying far above the normal consciousness of the men of that time.
If we would understand the significance of Zarathustra's teaching, we must realise that his mission was to communicate a certain conception of the universe to one particular section of humanity, while other streams had, as it were, a different mission in human culture. The personality of Zarathustra is all the more interesting to us in that he lived in a part of the world directly adjoining on its South side another land whose people transmitted an entirely different order of spirituality to mankind. I refer to the peoples of India, from whom arose the Vedic poets. The region permeated with the mighty impulse of Zarathustra lies to the North of the land from which the great teaching of Brahma went forth. Zarathustra's message to the world was fundamentally different from the Brahministic teachings of the great leaders of ancient Indian thought. These Indian teachings have come down to us in the Vedas, and in the profound philosophy of the Vedanta, of which the revelations of Buddha represent, as it were, the final splendour.
...
Zarathustra taught his disciples to see the Spirit behind every physical phenomenon. The whole civilisation inspired by him was based on this principle. Now it is not enough to say that behind the world of the senses there is the Divine-Spiritual. Man may think he has discovered a great truth here, but it leads to nothing but a vague Pantheism. We may think we express a truth when we say: “God is at work behind every physical phenomenon” — but this is merely a conception of a nebulous spiritual power behind all things physical. A teacher like Zarathustra, who had actually ascended to the spiritual world, did not speak in this abstract and vague terminology to his disciples and his people. He showed that just as individual physical phenomena are different, so the spiritual essence behind them is at one time more evident, at another less. He taught how behind the physical Sun — the origin of all life and activity — there is the centre of spiritual life.
Let us try to condense into simple language the doctrines which Zarathustra tried to inculcate into his disciples. He spoke thus: “Man, as we perceive him, is not merely composed of a physical body, for this physical body is but the outer manifestation of the Spirit. Just as the physical body is nothing but the manifested crystallisation of the Spiritual in man, so the Sun, in so far as it is a body of luminous matter, is nothing but the external body of a spiritual Sun.” The spiritual part of man is spoken of as the “Aura” — or “Ahura,” to use the old expression — in distinction to his physical body and in the same sense the spiritual part of the physical Sun may be called the “Great Aura,” for it is all-embracing. Zarathustra called that which lies behind the physical Sun, Aura Mazda or Ahura Mazdao — the Great Aura. With this spiritual essence behind the Sun, all spiritual experiences and conditions are bound up, just as the existence and well-being of plants, animals and all that lives on Earth are bound up with the physical Sun. Behind the physical Sun lives the spiritual Lord and Creator, Ahura Mazdao. This is the derivation of the name “Ormuzd,” Spirit of Light. While the Indians searched mystically in the inner self to find Brahma, the Eternal, shining like a luminous centre in man, Zarathustra pointed his disciples to the great periphery, showing them that the mighty Spirit of the Sun, Ahura Mazdao, the Spirit of Light, dwelt in the physical body of the Sun. Ahura Mazdao has to face his enemy — Ahriman, the Spirit of Darkness — just as man, who bears within himself the enemies of his good impulses, strives to raise his real spiritual being to perfection and has to battle against his lower passions, desires, and the delusive images of lying and falsehood.
Zarathustra was able to transmute his conception of the universe from mere doctrine into real feeling, real vision. And so he was able to teach his disciples that within them was an active principle of perfection. Whatever their development might be at the time, they were taught to realise that this principle of perfection could raise them to higher and higher stages of existence. They were taught that passions and desires, lying and deceit within the soul lead to imperfection. Zarathustra taught of the attacks made upon Ahura Mazdao in the outer world by the principle of imperfection, by the evil which casts shadow into the light, by Angra Mainyus — Ahriman.
Zarathustra's disciples were thus enabled to realise that the great universe is reflected in each individual. The real significance of this doctrine lay, not in its theoretical concepts and ideas but in the feeling it called forth in man — a feeling which taught him of his relationship to the universe and made him able to say: “Here I stand — a little world, but a little world which is a replica of the great world. In human beings, the principle of perfection is opposed by evil; in the great universe, Ormuzd and Ahriman face one another. The whole universe is, as it were, a man grown immeasurably great and the highest human forces are Ahura Mazdao — their enemy, Ahriman.”
ZarathustraThe evil in the teaching of Zarathustra by Mieke Mosmuller
'When we turn our attention to Zarathustra, we must look back over an infinitely long period of time. It is true that certain modern investigators have fixed the date of Zarathustra as contemporary with that of Buddha, which would mean that he lived some five or six centuries before the Christian era. It is however significant that our modern historians, after careful investigation of the traditions referring to Zarathustra, have been obliged to indicate that the personality hidden beneath the name of “Zarathustra,” the original founder of the Persian religion, must be placed a great many centuries before Buddha. Greek historians have repeatedly pointed out that Zarathustra must have lived about five or six thousand years before the Trojan War.
...
Zarathustra lived at least eight thousand years before our present era, and the gifts to civilisation which poured from his enlightened spirit shine forth clearly across the centuries. Those who penetrate into the inner currents of human evolution can detect them even after this lapse of time. Zarathustra was one of those whose soul had experienced Truth, Wisdom and Intuition to an extent far transcending the normal consciousness of the age. In that part of the Earth which later on was known as the Persian Empire, Zarathustra proclaimed mighty truths from the super-sensible worlds — regions lying far above the normal consciousness of the men of that time.
If we would understand the significance of Zarathustra's teaching, we must realise that his mission was to communicate a certain conception of the universe to one particular section of humanity, while other streams had, as it were, a different mission in human culture. The personality of Zarathustra is all the more interesting to us in that he lived in a part of the world directly adjoining on its South side another land whose people transmitted an entirely different order of spirituality to mankind. I refer to the peoples of India, from whom arose the Vedic poets. The region permeated with the mighty impulse of Zarathustra lies to the North of the land from which the great teaching of Brahma went forth. Zarathustra's message to the world was fundamentally different from the Brahministic teachings of the great leaders of ancient Indian thought. These Indian teachings have come down to us in the Vedas, and in the profound philosophy of the Vedanta, of which the revelations of Buddha represent, as it were, the final splendour.
...
Zarathustra taught his disciples to see the Spirit behind every physical phenomenon. The whole civilisation inspired by him was based on this principle. Now it is not enough to say that behind the world of the senses there is the Divine-Spiritual. Man may think he has discovered a great truth here, but it leads to nothing but a vague Pantheism. We may think we express a truth when we say: “God is at work behind every physical phenomenon” — but this is merely a conception of a nebulous spiritual power behind all things physical. A teacher like Zarathustra, who had actually ascended to the spiritual world, did not speak in this abstract and vague terminology to his disciples and his people. He showed that just as individual physical phenomena are different, so the spiritual essence behind them is at one time more evident, at another less. He taught how behind the physical Sun — the origin of all life and activity — there is the centre of spiritual life.
Let us try to condense into simple language the doctrines which Zarathustra tried to inculcate into his disciples. He spoke thus: “Man, as we perceive him, is not merely composed of a physical body, for this physical body is but the outer manifestation of the Spirit. Just as the physical body is nothing but the manifested crystallisation of the Spiritual in man, so the Sun, in so far as it is a body of luminous matter, is nothing but the external body of a spiritual Sun.” The spiritual part of man is spoken of as the “Aura” — or “Ahura,” to use the old expression — in distinction to his physical body and in the same sense the spiritual part of the physical Sun may be called the “Great Aura,” for it is all-embracing. Zarathustra called that which lies behind the physical Sun, Aura Mazda or Ahura Mazdao — the Great Aura. With this spiritual essence behind the Sun, all spiritual experiences and conditions are bound up, just as the existence and well-being of plants, animals and all that lives on Earth are bound up with the physical Sun. Behind the physical Sun lives the spiritual Lord and Creator, Ahura Mazdao. This is the derivation of the name “Ormuzd,” Spirit of Light. While the Indians searched mystically in the inner self to find Brahma, the Eternal, shining like a luminous centre in man, Zarathustra pointed his disciples to the great periphery, showing them that the mighty Spirit of the Sun, Ahura Mazdao, the Spirit of Light, dwelt in the physical body of the Sun. Ahura Mazdao has to face his enemy — Ahriman, the Spirit of Darkness — just as man, who bears within himself the enemies of his good impulses, strives to raise his real spiritual being to perfection and has to battle against his lower passions, desires, and the delusive images of lying and falsehood.
Zarathustra was able to transmute his conception of the universe from mere doctrine into real feeling, real vision. And so he was able to teach his disciples that within them was an active principle of perfection. Whatever their development might be at the time, they were taught to realise that this principle of perfection could raise them to higher and higher stages of existence. They were taught that passions and desires, lying and deceit within the soul lead to imperfection. Zarathustra taught of the attacks made upon Ahura Mazdao in the outer world by the principle of imperfection, by the evil which casts shadow into the light, by Angra Mainyus — Ahriman.
Zarathustra's disciples were thus enabled to realise that the great universe is reflected in each individual. The real significance of this doctrine lay, not in its theoretical concepts and ideas but in the feeling it called forth in man — a feeling which taught him of his relationship to the universe and made him able to say: “Here I stand — a little world, but a little world which is a replica of the great world. In human beings, the principle of perfection is opposed by evil; in the great universe, Ormuzd and Ahriman face one another. The whole universe is, as it were, a man grown immeasurably great and the highest human forces are Ahura Mazdao — their enemy, Ahriman.”
If man directs his attention truly to the physical world he must finally discover that all phenomena are part of the great cosmic process; he is filled with awe when spectro-analysis reveals the fact that the same substances which exist on Earth exist also on the farthest stars. In the light of Zarathustra's teaching, man felt himself in his spiritual being, part of the Spirit of the whole Cosmos; he felt himself emanating from this Spirit. Herein lies the great significance of the doctrine. (GA 60, Zarathustra, 19.01.11)
ZarathustraThe evil in the teaching of Zarathustra by Mieke Mosmuller
Comments
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From hans @Zouden de stoffen die op de verste sterren zijn hetzelfde zijn als de stoffen op aarde? Is dat niet een vooringenomen idee van de wetenschap?
Het zou best eens anders kunnen zijn met die stoffen. -
From Mieke Mosmuller @Ik had de indruk dat hier gewezen wordt op de gevoelens die ook bij een materialistische natuurwetenschapper kunnen ontstaan, wanneer deze even een vermoeden krijgt van een eenheid van microkosmos en macrokosmos, waarbij het er niet zozeer op aankomt of zijn weten helemaal waar is, maar wel dat dit vermoeden wordt gewekt.
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From Cees van der Kroef @Ik heb via Prokofieff begrepen, dat Zarathustra voordat hij de Perzische cultuur geïnitieerd heeft een zevental incarnaties heeft doorgemaakt als leerling van de opeenvolgende heilige zeven Rishi's. Ik meen te begrijpen uit Uw artikel, dat Zarathustra een esoterische school in de wereld heeft gezet, die de ontwikkeling heeft gezocht in de makrokosmos i.t.t. de innerlijke ontwikkelingsweg die de Brahmanen, die de mikrokosmos als uitgangspunt heeft genomen. Dus twee onderscheiden wegen. Wanneer we dan bij R. Steiner lezen in zijn evangelievoordrachten, dat de salomonische Jezus zich heeft verbonden met de nathanische Jezus, betekent dat dan dat de beide stromingen van de Brahmanen en Zarathustra met elkaar verbonden zijn geraakt? Als dan de salomonische Jezus na het Mysterie van Golgatha nog vele malen is geïnkarneerd is als o.a. 'Gottesfreund van Oberland is , tot praktisch op heden toe, wat betekent dat ten opzichte van de door R. Steiner's impuls van de anthroposophische impuls. Is er sprake van een doorwerken van het Zarathustrisme naast de anthrposophie, of mag je die als identiek te beschouwen
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From Mieke Mosmuller @Zoals door de komst van Christus alle bestaande stromingen worden verenigd, zo zie ik dat ook in de christelijke impuls in de anthroposofie. Het Zarathustrisme loopt niet naast de anthroposofie, maar ligt erin besloten, zoals ook de Krishna-stroming en de latere stromingen in de verschillende Mysteriën. Een grootse vereniging, die mogelijk is door de concrete vereniging die tijdens het Mysterie van Golgotha plaatsvond.
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From Boudolf @Als ik me niet vergis bevatte de leer van Zarathustra niet alleen de dualiteit tussen Ormuzd en Ahriman, maar was er ook een verbindend principe tussen beiden of zeg ik beter op de achtergrond. Maar misschien vormt dat het voorwerp van uw volgend artikel?
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From Mieke Mosmuller @Ja, daar ben ik inderdaad nu mee bezig voor a.s. woensdag.
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From Margareta Bannmann @Ich finde es wunderbar, dass wir uns durch solche Worte wieder unserer potenziellen Vollkommenheit bewusst werden können, und daurch ja auch unser Leben und die Umstände - im Kleinen wie im Großen - ganz anders einordnen und anschauen können. Da wir die Größe des Sonnengeistes und auch unseres eigenen Geistes gar nicht ermessen können, geht es un smit unseren Möglichkeiten zur Vollkommen heit ebenso. Mir persönlich fällt es aus einer solchen Erinnerungs-Haltung heraus leichter, den Angro-Maiyush-Erscheinungen zu begegnen. Danke! Margareta
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From Hugo Schmidt @Hallo, ich kann leider eher genau das Gegenteil erkennen als Vollkommenheit wenn ich mich selbst reflektiere oder Menschen in der näheren Umgebung beobachte und deren Absichten. Zoomt man noch weiter raus und sieht auf die Menschheit im gesamten wird man es auch dort sehen das der Mensch eher wie verflucht wirkt alles andere als vollkommen. Deshalb würde mich sehr interessieren wie das was Sie beschreiben mit der physischen und geistigen Welt übereinbringen denn es gibt eine nicht zu leugnende Kluft und Diskrepanz. Liebe Grüße und viel Freude beim nachsinnen
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From juri @wer hat das bild gemalt?
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From mynamajeff @was hast du gedacht?
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From Khushroo Mistree @I do not see any evil in such a beautiful way to express life love and existence.. in fact Jesus Christ spread exactly the same goodness.. is that evil? Mike is all mixed up
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From GRIMZBY @My thoughts exactly.
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From DG @Waarom heet dit artikel eigenlijk "the evil in...?" Wat is er zo kwaadaardig aan deze doctrine? Het Zoroastrianisme moedigt juist aan tot goede gedachten, goede woorden en goede daden