The Zoroastrian way

The new millennium has started off in characteristic fashion: men and women are beset by fear.

Just at a time when scientific and technological advance has relieved people of many afflictions that their predecessors actually regarded as inseparable from normality they are more fearful of dislocation to their lives than ever.

It is partly a matter of changing the goal-posts. As in ideas, so in daily material existence there is an escalating progression of expectations. Whether it is a matter of social welfare provision or an explanation of the universe, people have now come to regard perfection of achie­ve­­ment as a kind of birthright.

Modern people have become victims of their own fears, and are becoming imprisoned within their own creations. It is the endless pursuit of security that is to blame; the sense that life owes us repose and the satisfaction of material desires.

Modern people also own so much. Many of their fears relate to the possible loss of their property, that moth and rust will corrupt, or that thieves will break through and steal. They are, additionally, terrified of insecurity in their "relationships.” When their partner cannot deliver, things fall apart.

All this is in very great contrast to the Zoroastrian way. Those who try to follow Zoroaster are dedicated to a large measure of self-denial, both materially and emotionally. For them, life in society is not primarily about securing personal advantages. Nor do they seek to possess the persons of others, whether in "relationships” or in the social nexus generally. Zoroastrians educate their desires, and try to create priorities in their manner of living, and in their expectations, which are intended to mold them into creatures of transcendence. They make themselves, that is to say, aspirants to eternal life, and seek the consecration of their beings with graces which they cannot earn but which Zoroaster himself freely gives to those who ask.

It is what life is for.

FURHOK K. TANGREE

La Roche-sur-Foron, France