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MANI
Fariborz Rahnamoon
INTRODUCTION
Zarathushtra introduc=
ed
some unique concept never known among nations. He introduced the concept of
humans being the MASTER OF THEIR OWN FATE. The concept of ASHA the ABSOLUTE
TRUTH as existing in nature, the concept that God is within each person and=
is
reachable by self-realization - KHOD-AH, and above all how to make society
righteous and direct it on the path towards perfection.
Truly
the knowledge derived
By
the good mind
Never
before known
Among
the Wise and Creations
With
it form good rule, never waning
And
make society Righteous
Leading
us towards perfection
Zarathushtra
- Gatha - Yasna HA 28.3 (FR)=
With the establishmen=
t of
the
The direction that
civilization had taken in the two centuries since the
Jesus Christ was introduced as=
a
prophet=
[i] by
the wise men the Magi's and given the three gifts of Vohu-Mana, Asha Vahista
and Khash-Atra-Vairyu.[ii]=
a>
In the mean time within the
MANI
HIS LIFE
"Abu Rehan Birooni" the Iranian philos=
opher
and historian, whom western scholars wrongly call Arab, informs' us that Ma=
ni
was born on April 14, 216 CE. Mani's Persian name was Shuriak, or Cubricus =
in
Latin. "Pattak" his father was a Parthian Noble from Ekbatan (
Mani claimed that an angel visited him at the ag=
e of
12 and told him to be prepared to be the messenger of God. Again at the age=
of
24 he claimed the angel came to him and this time ordered him to start
preaching the message of God. He started his mission by recruiting follower=
s at
home, but it was a period of political turmoil, the Sassanian who had taken
charge of the empire in 226 CE, had appointed Tansar a Zarathushti high pri=
est
to collect the scattered Avesta and standardize it, so Mani thought it was =
wise
to set sail to Indian and preach his religion there and earn recognition. It
was the year 241 CE that in
On his return to
Shapour's son Hormoz who ruled for a short perio=
d had
nothing to do with Mani. After Hormoz, Bahram become king and he did not li=
ke
what Mani was doing. In 277 CE Bahram sent a message to Mani and called him=
to
his palace. Mani had sensed that his days were numbered and all along his
journey to Shush he bids farewell to his followers who came to see him. Bah=
ram
had hash words for the now 60-year-old Mani and after discussions and
accusation he ordered Mani be imprisoned. After being tortured for 26 days =
in
prison, Mani died.
By 300 CE, within 25 years after the death of Ma=
ni his
religion had spread up to Syrian and
His followers flourished till the beginning of t=
he
reign of Mahdi the Abbaasi Khalifeh of Islam, when they were persecuted and
killed or forcefully converted to Islam.
MANI
HIS TEACHINGS
The religion of Mani comprises=
of
six books, five of which were written in his native language of
"Arami-Suryani " and the sixth, which was called
"Shapourgan" was written in Pahlavi language. His teachings were
based on Zurvanism and preached Dualism. He preached that the world is made=
of
light and darkness, goodness and evil. Everything good was associated with
light and everything evil with darkness. With regards to the creation of the
earth and humans, the prince of darkness steals some light and with it crea=
tes
humans and all other forms of life on earth. Thus humans are the creation of
the evil force in which the light is imprisoned, Mani preached the process =
by
which humans could relieve the light and return it to the realm of goodness.
One of which was the procreation of fewer children. His teachings are furth=
er
classified under Gnosticism, which comes from the Greek word for Knowledge =
and
points at a belief that salvation comes from an insight in a secret knowled=
ge.
Gnosticism also involve that man has a capacity to discover truths with the
help of the intellect alone. It further believes in the theory that everyth=
ing
is involved in a fight between two powers or two qualities; light; the good=
or
the responsible; and darkness, the bad, the evil or the irresponsible. In t=
his
dualism humans play a role, but humans are of minimal importance compared to
the totality of this cosmic battle. Gnosticism did not start with Mani but
existed before him and Judaism and Christianity were strongly influenced by=
it
in its early days. Simon Magus (Simon the Persian) an important figure in t=
he
New Testament, who is also know by many different titles such as Simon the
leper, Lazarus (john 11), Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7: 44-46) Simon -
zealot (Luke 6: 15) Simon the magician,[iii]<=
/a>
Simon was a Gnost=
ic and
the Gospel of John has many Gnostic elements.
INFLUENCE
OF MANI ON AVESTA
The teachings of Mani have
influenced other religions mainly Zoroastrianism. The dualism that Zarathus=
htra
is accused of is in fact the dualism of Mani. The dualism of Zarathushtra is
limited to the human mind.
And
these thoughts in the beginning
Their
apposing nature revealed themselves
In
the mind and in the words also
In
the deeds and these were good and bad
And
of these the wise
Rightly
choose not so truly the unwise
Zarathushtra
- Gatha - Yasna H=
A 30.3
(FR)
While Mani whose teachings were
based on Zarvanism speaks of two separate creators one creating all that is=
bad
and the other creating all the good things. The word Ahriman that represents
the creator of evil does not appear in the Gathas of Zarathushtra at all. In
fact Zarathushtra says that good and bad, happiness and pain are the produc=
t of
human thoughts.
That
these laws you understand
That
wisdom has given humans
Happiness
and grief
And
that practice of evil harms
Progress
and followers of truth
And
as a result of these shall come illumination
Zarathushtra
- Gatha - Yasna HA
30.11 (FR)
Mani's dualism is preserved in=
the
Vandidat, Bundahisn, Denkart and other parts of Sassanian era Avesta.
ORGANIZATION
& PRACTICE
The Manichaeans society consis=
ted of
two groups, the elected and the laymen. The elected class had only male
members, and they were the ones deemed to disentangle their seed of light f=
rom
their bodies. They did not marry, did not eat meat, and drink wine or work.=
All
they did was to preach. The laymen lived fairly normal lives. The married, =
but
it was considered a good act not to have many children, as an increasing nu=
mber
of humans would mean that the light was spread in more bodies. For they
believed that light was imprisoned into the body of humans by the devil. The
laymen had only limited access to the teachings of Manichaeism and left muc=
h of
that to the elected class who acted as their representatives. The laymen
attended weekly fasts, but little is known of the religious services of the=
two
classes. What Mani seems to have picked up in
THE
REALM OF MANICHEANS
There
exist some letter written by Mani to his followers in
To know more about Mani and his
teachings research need to be done on the various fragments of Manichaean
literature, which were found in Chinese Turkestan and in Turfan plus those
found in El Faiyum in
[i] Mathew 2.2
[ii]= a> Mathew4 Check for meaning http://ww= w.ancientiran.com Influence on other religions.
[iii]=
Barbara
Thiering in her book Jesus the Man