Towers of Silence - and the important principle behind them Part 3

Human remains make excellent fertilizer and excellent scavenger food indeed (and how delightfully appropriate anyway since we ourselves are scavengers, this is why hanged meat tastes better to us than raw fresh meat). And here we get to the profiund principle behind all Zoroastrian burial traditions: Recycling! As for myself, this is what is important to ME to know before I die, that I am being fed back into the ecological system when my body has ceased being the temporary home of me. Feed the body back into the world-as-one. Make good use of what no longer serves its purpose. To me, THIS is the Zoroastrian principle of life and death. And it is important, it is profound to all our ethics. Vineyards? Sounds great to me. Bananans too. The same goes for Clint's wonderful trees, especially fitting in Scandinavia where I live and where we can grow neither bananas nor wine.
Ushta
Alexander

2009/8/18 roryyoung15

Dear Parviz,

I think in our case growing grapes in Central African might be a problem. BANANAS on the other hand are very popular! :-)
Seriously though, human remains make excellent fertilizer!

Ushta,
Rory

--- In Ushta@yahoogroups.com, Parviz Varjavand wrote:
>
> Friends,
> How about getting a natural setting and then creating a vineyard very naturally planted (not in industrial looking rows) and bury the corps naturally and planting a vine over it. Then as the grape vine matures, the decedents can harvest the grapes and make vine and drink it honoring their departed. Can this be done? (A very good year for grandpa Nowzar, let us drink to his big nose that we all seem to have inherited ;-)
> Parviz
>
> --- On Tue, 8/18/09, Alexander Bard wrote:
>
> From: Alexander Bard

> Subject: Re: [Ushta] Re: Towers of Silence - and the important principle behind them...
> To: Ushta@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 6:31 AM
>
> Dear Clint
>
> I agree with you. For me a traditional Scandinavian earth burial - going back to pagan times and Indo-European traditions - would do just fine. But it is important that we also understand that this is not sufficient for many traditional Zoroastrians for whom earth, water and fire may not touch the corpse, this is how sacred they regard the earth and how low they hold a dead body (as its opposite to a human being and not a human entity on its own). In that case, earth burials will not do, so recycling has become the favored option (as it is among Tibetan Lamaists too, who also feed corpses to vultures). However, understanding and sympathizing with a tradition does not mean we have to follow it. Zarathushtra for one did not care. So for you and me as western converts to Zoroastrianism, we are likely to construct our own habits that go with our faith and we should all respect each other for these various choices we make.
>
>
> Ushta
> Alexander