Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, was a Persian teacher who lived sometime between the 2nd and 7th centuries BC. Zoroaster effectively challenged the existing religious traditions, sparking a movement that grew into the dominant religion of ancient Persia. Central to his teachings were the struggle within the human being of asha, arta or aša, and druj. Asa, like Tao, is not translatable into a word, but points to the True, objective, Reality that encompasses and embraces All. It speaks to Truth, it speaks to existence, it speaks to that which is Right, it speaks to Proper Order.
These concepts were associated with one Creator of All. Zoroaster taught that the One truthful, right, good Creator who properly ordered the universe was mythically opposed by a dragon that emerges from the deep to destroy the living world / creation of Aša / Creator. The dragon is associated with druj, which is the antithesis of Aša.
Druj connotes Deceit, falsehood, and that which is not in harmony with the proper created order which is good.
This battle played out not only in the cosmos, but within individual human beings, whose purpose, along with All Creation, is to align and sustain itself in Aša, which is the perfect Divine nature of the One.
He emphasized individual Freedom and Responsibility, and taught that through Right Thought, Right Speech, and Right Action, we can become co-workers with the One, thereby perfecting the world.
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