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such an emphasis on the practice of renunciation as being the proper path to attain spiritual
liberation. The emphasis is placed on ethical and ascetic behavior, that is to say, not doing harm or
injury to others and not indulging in the pleasures of the flesh, but radicall y simplifying one's way
of life by means of the monastic discipline. But this is not the method of Dzogchen as such.
Dzogchen goes immediately to the deepest ontological level, this existential ignorance, and proceeds
to sever Samsara at its root. The different spiritual paths to enlightenment, each valid in its own
terms, correspond to the three dimensions of human existence of body, speech or energy, and mind.
These may be tabulated as follows:
Sutra Path of Renunciation Higher Morality body
Tantra Path of Transformation Higher Meditation speech
Upadesha Path of Self-Liberation Higher Wisdom mind
In this classification, Upadesha refers to Dzogchen. See Namkhai Norbu, The Crystal and the Way of
Light: Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen, Arkana Penguin Books, London 1993.
[23] In the Zurvanist theology of later Zoroastrianism, which appears to have been especially wide
spread in the Sassanian empire of Iran during the early Christian era until the ri se of Islam in the
seventh century, the texts speak of a single ground of existence called Zurvan Akarana, or infinite
time, out of which emerged the twin deities Ohrmazd and Ahriman. The one embodied the
principles of light and order and goodness, while the other embodied darkness and chaos and evil.
The latter twin, Ahriman, the personification of the shadow side of existence, arose from a doubt in
the mind of Zurvan or God. The conflict between these two opposed spirits or principles, led to the
creation of our world, which is known as "the time of limited duration," because it consists of twelve
millennia during which the present world exists. Ohrmazd, as the principle of light, possessed
wisdom and foreknowledge, and so he knew beforehand of the coming conflict with his twin brother.
But Ahriman possessed only knowledge of the past and did not known the future, so when he
attacked the realm of his brother, he did not know he was destined to loose the cosmic battle after
the passage of many millennia. Thus, as the good spirit, Ohrmazd devised a plan to ensure his
brother' s defeat. He created the prototype of our present world as a perfectly ordered realm that
was of light and of a purely spiritual nature. This perfect world endured for some three thousand
years when it was attacked from outside the cosmos by the evil spirit Ahriman, emerging from the
outer darkness because of his envy of the beauty of the light. Ohrmazd then created the first human
being, the Archetypal Man known as Gayomart, who went fort h into battle at the boundary of the
known universe against the demonic force of darkness and chaos led by Ahriman. After a fierce
battle, Gayomart was defeated and shattered into a vast multitude of tiny sparks of light. These
sparks are now imprisoned within bodies of flesh known as human beings. Out of his envy for the
beautiful work of his brother, Ahriman then attempted to construct a replica in matter of the
celestial prototype created in light by Ohrmazd. This process occupied the second period of th ree
thousand years.
79
 Thus, the universe has fallen from the original creation of pure spirituality and light and has
become a mixed world where the opposing principles of light and darkness, or good and evil,
struggle and contend for supremacy. This represents our present time of travail. But at the end of a
period of six thousand years, the triumph of Ohrmazd and the forces of light is assured. Those
human spirits who have rejected the darkness and have chosen the light will become liberated and
Gayomart will become united and whole again. Ahriman will be defeated by the forces of light and
will be expelled into the outer darkness beyond the ordered cosmos forever. Then there will occur a
purifying fire that sweeps the world and destroys all sinners who remain, followed by a general
resurrection of all humanity and universal renovation or recreation of the world, known as the
Frashkart. The world again becomes an unspoiled Paradise as it was in the time of the beginning
before it was corrupted and degraded by the onslaught of Ahriman and humans will once more
become purely spiritual beings of light, united with their celestial souls or Fravarti. And since the
time of limited duration is now completed, this renewed condition of Paradise will be everlas ting.
The impact of this Zoroastrian eschatology upon post-exilic Judaism and even more on the
development of Christianity has been well documented. The similarities with Christian eschatology
are obvious. The basic Zoroastrian myth of God creating two spirits who, because they possess free
will, the one chooses good and the light, while the other chooses evil and the darkness, is found in
the Gathas or hymns which can be clearly attributed to the Magian prophet Zarathushtra or
Zoroaster himself (c. 700 BC). This same myth exactly reappears in the Dead Sea Scrolls. See R.C.
Zaehner, The Dawn and Twilight of Zoroastrianism, G.P. Putnam, New York 1961, pp. 193-248..
Moreover, a number old pre-Buddhist Bonpo texts translated from the Zhang-zhung language,
such as the Sri d-pa mdzod-phug, appear to reflect this Zurvanist myth and theology. Zurvanism and
Bon are both ultimately monistic, tracing the creation of these two opposing spirits to a single
source. They postulate a single Ultimate Reality, whether eternity in the case of Iran or infinite
space in the case of Tibet, out of which the dualities emerge that then work out their dialectic
during the course of a finite history. In Bon, especially in the old pre-Buddhist myths, these two
principles of light and darkness are known as Ye and Ngam and, accordingly, on one side are
arrayed the gods (lha) and on the other side are arrayed the demons (bdud).
In contrast, Manicheanism, the religion established by the Parthian prophet Mani (3 cen CE) is
radically dualistic. Unlike orthodox Zoroastrianism, which regarded the world as basically the
creation and work of Ohrmazd, the good God of Light, only to be later spoiled and corrupted by the
Devil, Ahriman, Mani came to associate the world in gener al and matter in particular with the
principle of evil and darkness as such. On one side were ranged God, light, order, spirit, and good [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]