Make space on the floor, sit down, and get comfortable.īreathe in through your nose (three counts).īreathe out through your nose (three counts). There is a lot more to be said and understood, but for now, try this. Strive to help the community around you in everything you do and build a thriving ecosystem that is interlinked and helpful. Strive to communicate care, nurture, kindness, and help. I truly believe that businesses can live by this philosophy too.īuild a business around a genuine problem to solve that will provide for society, communities, and the planet at large positively. I believe that human beings have the courage to make the change that is required today and every day. ![]() I believe in an equitable future for all species on planet Earth. I believe that our thoughts guide the future. You are free to interpret and apply it to your daily life as you see fit. What I can offer is a philosophy, a way of life that, as a Zoroastrian, I practice - Good Thoughts (think good), Good Words (speak good), and Good Deeds (do good). I understand that this is changing, slowly but surely, and I have respect and applause for every single human being who is trying. How it "works" is in inequitable way and does not account for all species on planet Earth. Outside the fire temple, the view includes a Korean Baptist church, a Pentecostal church with services in Spanish and Vietnamese and a glimpse of Little Saigon.I believe I have finally understood how the world works (mostly) and realized that it does not. Goals that are familiar to many of their neighbors. I am asking for your continued help, for the kids.” Through slush, snow and mud, these goals have been achieved. You have passed on your financial and moral support to your kids so they can learn the religion. You have published books in English about the religion. And you have established religious centers, with classes and seminars. “If you came after the revolution, you came to establish yourself in a new world. You adapt, you bring some of the old, you learn the new, so you can have a happy tomorrow. “You have all come to this country, by choice or not. “Close your eyes, imagine you are in New York on a wagon train headed for the West Coast,” he began. In Southern California, leaders such as Fariborz Shahzadi are vigorously reviving the religious commitment. Zoroastrians have been allowed to practice their faith in Iran during this century, but several nearby countries were restricted under Communism. What had been a social gathering, with coffee cups and flicking cameras, turned quieter.įariborz Shahzadi, the center’s religious education director, reminded the group of the fuller meaning of the day. Each one held a sprig of green, a symbol of life and fertility.Īt the first sound of the ancient prayers at the Westminster rite, women covered their heads with scarves. At the ceremony in April, he was among the mobeds, the community of priests that included his grandfather. “I was nervous before I had to recite, but afterward I felt so proud,” says Soroushian of his initiation day. ![]() Fire temples, or smaller centers, dot the state from San Jose to Los Angeles, Westminster to San Diego. Worldwide membership figures vary widely with estimates from fewer than 200,000 to more than 500,000.Ĭalifornia has become a center for the religion with the influx since the early 1980s of immigrants from Iran following that country’s revolution and later after the Iran-Iraq war. ![]() Iran has about 45,000, and North America about 10,000, scholars estimate. India has the largest community of Zoroastrians in the world, with about 76,000 adherents. It is the face of a young man with a dark beard who wears a turban and robe similar to those worn by Zoroastrian priests during modern religious services.Ī thorough tutor, Shahzadi explains that Zarathustra wrote the Gatha, a collection of hymns that is contained in the Avesta, the Zoroastrian book of sacred scripture. Above his desk there is a portrait of Zarathustra, who is believed to have founded the faith in the region of Afghanistan. In a library filled with books about the religion, its history and theology, Mobed Bahram Shahzadi, director of the Westminster fire temple, spends most of his day. However, while its roots extend to at least the 7th century BC, and some scholars date its beginnings as far back as the 16th century BC, most Westerners are not familiar with Zoroastrianism’s primary teachings. For some Westerners, the name of the religion is as familiar as Judaism, Christianity and Islam, also based on a belief in one God. What was a flourishing religion in ancient Iran and across the Persian Empire has dwindled through centuries of foreign conquest to be perhaps the smallest of monotheistic faiths.
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