Asha — The Cosmic Order of Truth
The Teaching
Asha — Truth, Righteousness, Cosmic Order. The fundamental principle by which the universe is maintained in its proper functioning.
Humata — Good Thoughts Hukhta — Good Words Huvarshta — Good Deeds
These three — the Zoroastrian ethical triad — are not merely moral rules but descriptions of the alignment of thought, speech, and action with Asha, the cosmic order of truth. When human beings live in Asha, they participate in the ongoing maintenance of the universe itself.
The eternal fire maintained in Zoroastrian temples is the visible symbol of Asha — light, warmth, and purification — as the ongoing creative and sustaining force of reality.
Commentary
Asha as cosmic order of truth is the Zoroastrian equivalent of the Chinese Tao, the Indian Dharma, the Greek Logos, and the Stoic Nature. All these concepts describe the same thing: an inherent order in reality to which conscious beings can align themselves.
‘Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds’, the integration must go all the way through. Thinking truth without speaking it is incomplete. Speaking truth without acting it is incomplete. This is what Jesus calls ‘the pure in heart who will see God.’
The eternal fire as Asha made visible: light that purifies, warmth that sustains life, fire that transforms. The same symbolism appears in the Vedic Agni (sacred fire), the Hermetic fire of transformation, and the Pentecost fire of the Holy Spirit.
Themes
Connections 7
Arose apart
No known transmission between Taoism and Zoroastrianism while these teachings took shape. Zoroastrian temples stood in Tang Chang’an, but no exchange of ideas is known.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Stoicism and Zoroastrianism while these teachings took shape.
Unsure
Contact through Persia (the Magi of Matthew 2; the Church of the East under the Sasanians). Zoroastrian influence on Christian end-times, by way of Judaism, is argued.
Unsure
Contact in Kushan and Sasanian Central Asia. The future Buddha Maitreya and the Zoroastrian saviour have been compared; influence argued.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Shinto and Zoroastrianism while these teachings took shape.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Egyptian religion and Zoroastrianism while these teachings took shape. Persia ruled Egypt from 525 BCE. No religious exchange is known.