Your Ideal Temple - What dreams are made of

What would your ideal temple be like? Would you want there to be a community of devotees living around or near it? Would you want it to always be open and free to gain access to? Should it be large enough for people to seek refuge in during emergencies?

If you feel that your ideal temple should definitely have a community of devotees living around it should there be an inner circle where only advanced, worthy, or accomplished initiates or members are allowed?

And what about that terrible wicked, root of all evil thing money ? Should everything run on donations? If not what sort of enterprises would you condone to raise funds to "keep the lights on"?


Whether the temple of your dreams is a Jedi temple, a Hindu shrine, even just a training ground where people practice practical skills and live in wigwams and teepees, or some grand structure that is a part of some hither to unknown, and yet to be formed movement with an inner circle please feel free to share your thoughts, aspirations, and dreams in this thread.


No idea is too big or too small. Please feel free to share your ideas of training post, Yoda shacks, trading post, satellite spots, or any physical location that would support the idea of a physical temple and/or community.

The Retreat: J.u.s.t Jedi Training Grounds

I used to do this alot. No matter how non practical it would be to build one ( $$$$$$ ) As an organizer of Gatherings I and other Hosts have said many times that it would be nice to have a singular retreat that we go to each year to Train and Practice our paths. I am not expert at Computer graphicing so I just used the simple Paint program and made the image below. I made it so that the Retreats Master lived on site thus allowing its ability to be maintained and open for use...naturally since I was the one desiging it I pretended my family was the one that lived on site and made it to my likings Still It has about everything

The Village would be made out of Cob Housing/Green Housing materials
The Mess Hall would be Hobbit-ish in apperance
The Tavern would of course have a Fantasy Tavern like apperance
The Bath house would have Roman/Japanese like qualities (Wade pools ect ect)
The Fishing Pond would also be an outdoor Pool area (Natural Pool Layouts)

Yeaaa.....Its fun to dream

View larger version: http://www.freewebs.com/p626/Dream%20Retreat.png

For me, anywhere where Jedi come together is a Temple...

An abandoned camp near my house. Just needs to be fixed up and made liveable once more and I think it could be a great little temple.

Other than that, I agree with Edan.

Kitsu trails- ParCanDroon-

Everybody.

What ive written here is a lot for one sitting, and as i write it i remind myself that i am expressing my own version of what is right now only the early expression of a template.

Even in my own mind the mood is that everything about a real jedi temple would be a collaborative effort, and so i share what i have envisioned with the hope that everyone sincere in the desire for the manifestation of a physical temple would also share their vision as a cooperative effort, where the best good for all is the underlying theme

Also i am a serious person

i belive in Jedi
i belive that we are exceptional individuals capable of exceptional things

we are still in our infancy, and there is much to learn and much to do, but through our commitment to ourselves, our paths, our community, we are collectively capable of doing anything

I mean that most sincerely
we are capable of ANYTHING

With vision and cooperation we could collectively be responsible for sending someone to the moon

Nothing is beyond us if we have vision and unity

What i put forward here is again only a template and open in every element to review and revision

I consider for our timeline anywhere from 1 to 100 years.

personally i think that the temple should always operate within a visionary framework of 100 years

as this gives us both the ability to see and measure progress within our own lifetimes
and a heightened perspective and understanding that we work together for something that is larger and greater than any one of us

I want to say that i like very much many of the ideas in the vision posted by Kitsu Tails
as an organiser of gatherings you and your contemporaries have valuable experience and contacts

How many people have you already seen and met that have given freely of their time their effort even their money
yousay early in your post that you see the generation of the neccessary funds as non practicle.
as a former fundraiser for environmental and social justice causes i can tell you with 100% confidence that there is nothing impractical about generating any amount of money that may be neccessary

what i see as impractical is trying to keep hold of two so contradictory ideals as
1) I am Jedi
and
2) there is something that i and my peers are truly incapable of doing

Those two ideas do not jive with each other

ParCanDroon
that looks like an excellent site for a temple
the water i see - what is that? river? lake?
on or near a coastline by any chance?
iz it for sale?

This is my vision and i invite all to participate with your own

I envision something that is first and foremost completely self sufficient, even to the point of having its own well (maybe water treatment) and generating its own electricity and growing its own food.

this is one reason being close to water especially fresh water is desireable

i see a temple that is interactive with its community
open to all without requirement of monetary exchange

effort and participation are the currency

There are live-in jedi who are responsible for temple administration, groundskeeping, farming, instruction of temple members and community

temple living is generally done in rotationz of maybe a 1-3 years in and 1-3 years out - not relative to each other (so you can stay 3 yrz and be gone 1 yr or you can be gone 3 yrs and stay for only 1 yr or any combination thereof)

there will be some exceptions and anyone is welcome to address the council for permission for prolonged residency

whatever the limit is the idea behind it is that there are no "official temple masters" the temple belongs to the jedi,
the jedi do not belong to the temple - or by extension, the "temple masters"

everyone invests their own personal time energy and effort to the stewardship of the temple in their due course, and every jedi is allowed access to all instructional experiences withinn the temple

official rank advancement ceremonies can be held on temple grounds perhaps seasonally at springtime as an expression of jedi harmony with natural world and forces therein

I do not belive in "secret knowledge" "hidden mysteries" or any other of this ego centric absurdity
and the basic rule that predominates temple involvement is that everyone is entitled to everything that they are willing to work for

Advancement is a matter of individual ability and effort.
by and large the curriculum and advancement criteria will be standardized, however this standardization is held as supplemental (therefore in certain areas secondary) to the apprenticeship experience, which will be mandatory for recognition of certain rank. A lot of people have already worked very hard to develop effective ranking systems and everyones work should be respected - i think its not an unfair assesment that the ranking system may never be formally complete. There will likely always be room for improvement -in fact i have been told that there always is

Personally i feel the word MASTER to be less than optimal as an official designation of rank, as many of the inherent implications of the word are counter to jedi philosophy.
my litmus for this is to suggest that those to whom the word "master" is important enough to argue over are the very examples of why the word is misplaced to designate actual status within the path.

A "true" master is not so attatched to being called master that a more modest designation such as teacher, or sense` or even professor or instructor would not be acceptable alternatives

that being said i myself am not so attatched to this that i would stall progress over the issue

if one is able to demonstrate "mastery" at any stage they will be seen as ready to progress to the next level in the relative subject matter and will be allowed to do so promptly -
there will be no holding a person back as a sort of inverse punishment for being exceptional


Agriculture, carpentry, homesteading, life craft (making and repairing ones cloths, tools, furniture, even ones home)
will also be taught at the temple through the proccess of "simply"doing them

The grounds could be compared to hogwarts academy in the harry pooter novels in that they are very expansive

with both well cultivated, manicured and controled land, as well as, by and large untamed areas, where nature itself is the only groundskeeper

I would like to see something with many acres of forestry to one side, with underground springs and hopefully a decent sized river flowing through the land into the ocean coastline on another of the outer edges of the grounds

I like the idea of ocean coastline as this opens many potentials

there are training opportunities afforded by time at sea as well as what we may refer to as "strategic implications" within a coastal setting

Land immediately surrounding the temple will be used for the farming and homesteading as well as the various ACADEMY activities

wilderness survival and nuatical and sea faring disciplines will be a part of temple instruction

A fund will be established for the purchasing of the land, materials, permits ect ect all unavoidable finacial requirements imposed by the state
This fund will be entirely contribution based but any individual or group is free to engage in any enterprise they choose in order to generate funds to be contributed, but, it is to be understood that financial contribution does not in any way translate into temporal influence. No one can BUY authority within the temple heirarchy

All contributions are recognised as anonymous and even though some will find that they are motivated to support out of their commercial success it will be understood that no commercial enterprise will be seen as representative of the temple.
and
the temple will excersize no authority or oversight of any commercial enterprise
nor be in any way obligated to any kind of support, overt or covert, of any commercial enterprise

That being said the knowledge and skills neccesary for success in commercial endeavors will be amongst temple curriculum and there is no rule either spoken or unspoken preventing or discouraging individuals or groups from commercial enterprise as such,
in fact, i see it as likely and healthy that a part of jedi training will include some element of commercial venture, as this instills both the philosophical understanding and the real world actualization of individual self sufficiency, as well as communal or societal participation

in other words Jedi are responsible for their own self sufficiency and jedi participate actively in their communities as instruments of service, and representatives of equality, justice, compassion, wisdom, unity, and human dignity

intelligent and balanced activity in both commercial and non commercial local affairs is the most direct and effective method of such representation and support for self sufficiency

it is understood however that at the experiential level, Jedi uphold a life long commitment to the principals of frugal and modest lifestyle

the accoutrements and outward trappings of wealth, prestige and social influence are to be discarded as superfluous, while the inward commitment to character development and service to ones world are core tenents of temple existence and jedi philosophy in general

as much as is possible the temple should be modeled upon the "wiki" philosophy of user participation, regulation and maintanence

---

I know thats a lot to read and thanks to anyone that put in the time to do so. Im typing this on my phone and its taken me more than two hours

Look
with the jedi documentary coming up youre about to see an influx of new names
with this comes new opportunities
also what i see lacking in the jedi community is not sincerity or competence
its unity of vision
Maybe im wrong about that but i know im right about this: The first step to getting what you want is to decide what exactly it is that you want and the second step is to decide that its possible

ParCandroon wrote:

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An abandoned camp near my house. Just needs to be fixed up and made liveable once more and I think it could be a great little temple.

Other than that, I agree with Edan.

Heck, if we were to use that I'd gladly pitch in any way I could

Yes the camp is for sale and it overlooks a small lake. There are somewhere around 30 cabins which can house quite a few people, though two of them burned down recently, there is a gymnasium, performing arts building with a stage which I figure could be the central temple, a mess hall with kit hen, and a bunch of other buildings that can be repurposed. The place is in a horrible state after 10 years of abandonment and vandalism, but if we worked together as a team we could easily fix it up after gathering donations. There are also the remnants of baseball diamonds, a roller hockey rink, and tennis courts and a shack on the lake with soothe original floating dock pieces.

Quite a diamond in the rough. Definitely big enough to make a small monastery.

I don't know if I missed it... but, Par, where is that location? I know that might not be so great for your privacy, but even a state would be great to know.

Not to make my own teaching master sound like the best, but whenever we talk about a physical Temple, I am always reminded of the first thing I ever read from Alan... Here's his sermon on Imagining the Temple .

Honestly, I feel like any one of these ideas would be wonderful. Honestly, I just think it would be nice to have a place that Jedi could go to at any time of the year and find other Jedi there (whether it's a resident Jedi or other visiting Jedi).

Connor L. wrote: I don't know if I missed it... but, Par, where is that location? I know that might not be so great for your privacy, but even a state would be great to know.

Would be helpful, wouldn't it?

It's located in Vernon, New Jersey 07462

Alternatively, do a Google on "Camp Sussex Vernon NJ" and you'll get a load of articles about its closing and the recent fires. According to one article, Mel Brooks even went there as a kid and said a few words about the camp.

Edit:
After rereading Alan's sermon, I understand the meaning behind it, and wanted to add that the act of creating what some call a "wonderland" is quite similar to what the Master tells the Apprentice in the story. By visualizing a place in your mind so clearly and with so much focus, you literally create the place and can return to it in your mind whenever you please whether it's for daydreaming, meditation, or just to calm down and clear your head. Very nice.