Physical TOTJO Temple in Texas Project

MJ Hannigan wrote: So there are just too many pages so I wanted to redirect a bit. What exactly would the TOTJO temple be teaching? What will be the requirements of said teachers?

If I were to imagine such a thing, a physical temple, it perhaps would facilitate students doing the IP and Initiate workloads, before finally providing more useful facilities to support the resident Training Master's conducting Apprenticeship's, which are of course more personal and content would be different for each Apprentice... as it is now.

As I'd like to see such a thing provide the means to train in skills, whether they be meditation, philosophy, first aid or helicopter flying LOL. Proficiency is the foundation to grow, so you can never do enough training!!!

Whyte Horse wrote: I think we should all just take a step back and consider what a temple means to us... here's one possible rendition:

Ya baby!

Game, set, match, score: love-love!

Akkarin wrote: Besides the practical limitations of building a temple, the planning and organising etc, we don't actually need one. What would we use it for? Other than just having a Temple?

Sure we can use it to host Jedi gatherings, that might actually be a great way of using it, and we can use it to maybe hold training sessions etc or as a spiritual retreat for members of the public and other Jedi etc, hosting teaching seminars and so on. Those sorts of things are probably a great use of the land.

That being said we only have $400 in our bank account so we aren't even close to be able to afford this sort of thing. A fundraiser would also have to be justified and we would need a full plan in place for that.

The fastest way to encourage us to begin building a temple would either be a larger influx of donations or a donation of viable land itself. Not just 'land' either, you have to take into account such things as transport, sanitation, electricity, water, planning restrictions, the surrounding use for the land, future use of surrounding land, and not to mention variable weather conditions to make living there actually enjoyable etc.

One benefit to having an actual temple or even a monastery would be having a controlled environment where people could go and gain mastery over themselves and greater understanding of the principles they are supposed to embody without the constant distraction of the outside world. This is not to say they should be insular, but that mastery of the Ideology has to come before it can be effectively applied to the outside world. Another benefit is it would increase the legitimacy of the Religion in the eyes of the outside world. All of this would contribute to the survive ability of the Jediism. As far as organization the temple as described in the book The Jedi Path could be a template, and it could be administered in like fasion to the coop Mondragon all under a series of 503c`s

If I understand well, the first interest of such a temple, according to the conversation, would be to have teachers or poeple living in, to have seminaries or Jedi gatherings. But you seem to forget two really important functions of a temple or church.

The first one is the place to ressource yourself. A place of peace, to be able to meditate in a place of a higher quality, made for that. Personally, I would love to have a place made for that. A peacfull hall, with high ceiling, fresh, and comfortable, to meditate in peace. That is the first reason why I would build such a temple.

The second one, is a place for pelgrimage. According with Campbell's teachings, an inner journey must be executed to reach another level of beleif or understanding, or even life. And ancient tribes understood that, and put in place some initiation that would figurate that journey through a physical journey. A lot of myths speak about those sort of things. And a lot of people feel the need for that. I feel the need for that for an exemple. But no place is yet related with Jediism as a religion. A place for pilgrimage is not to under estimate.

Add to that all the arguments about the non Jedi community. Building such a place will affirm the reality of our religion, this is something real, not a role play online, but also the importance of our community, we are enough to be able to build such a building, our belief has spread, and for some poeple, make them aware of our existence. Show to some other lost poeple the existance of our path, that they could maybe found their way through our religion.

I really want to see such a place built. A place reflecting our community. A place to affirm our beliefs. A place to live our belief. I think we reached a point where we need to materialize our community, to finally feel recognized by our world.

To Everyone: Our registered legal physical address is in Beaumont Texas. That's about 88 miles from Houston. So I'll pick that as the the quasi-arbitrary location to have a building. Assume we have a massive temple in Beaumont Texas.

How many of you can leave your jobs and homes behind to come live here and be teachers?

How many of you can come for a one week stay within the next two years and would you?

There is no cost for lodging and meals since there are guest quarters here.

If temples where not considered a building everything could be a temple? :blink:

I guess youre posing a hypothetical for the sake of making a point, but If you could afford to house me and provide me the space and basic resources that i would need in order to build up a martial arts training program, i could probably be there in a few months. Six months at most. (EDIT: since you gave a two year window and i AM in school and i dont know for sure how difficult it would be for me to get there, i want to amend this time period to "probably in six months but definitely within the two year window) Eventually someone better at martial arts than me will show up and thats cool, but i can set up a program that would be able to continue to run on its own as long as there were people there who were dedicated (not just "interested" but dedicated)

It would be a lot easier on everybody if you already have some way prepared that i could work to generate the funds to cover my living expenses.

I am currently at the university, and coming within two years is impossible for me. But in two years I can come for a few weeks, or even a year. And if you count the building process, it would be in the two first year of the temple life.

Actually, I love the project of building a temple, but I live in Europe, and I would like to see one here too... But if there's only one in USA, you can be sure that I would come and visit within the 5 years (maximum).

How many of you can come for a one week stay within the next two years and would you?

There is no cost for lodging and meals since there are guest quarters here.

Are you inviting me over for Coffee br John?

I have never said no to free coffee.

Don't make me fly to Texas to maintain my perfect record.

John,

I could make a trip in July. Perhaps Brenna or Wescli will come with.

-Connor