Rosalyn J wrote: If that is the case then the doctrine should be much shorter should it not?
um. EXACTLY. This is why, I, being verbosity incarnate, recommended a much more concise version.
Rosalyn J wrote: The Creed would need to be removed because look at the verbiage.
“Where there is...I shall bring” and “I shall never”. Those are directives. What happens when I don’t bring love where there is hatred, am I a Jedi? What about if I am more worried about being understood than being understanding? And who will hold me accountable? By what right? Would it be that because on this particular day, in this particular instance they are able to be understanding and loving? And what about all the other times where they royally fuck that shit up? (I’ve been there).
A creed, is more kinda targeted to what you do in the ideal. I would say, "A Jedi strives to....", etc. to indicate that we too have standards and that we too can miss the mark. But having standards is great. Imagine a world in which everyone is trying to be mediocre and every runner is training to come in 5th. Lol. There are things about Jediism I think we take for granted because the name Jedi implies a lot of things our minds are triggered to bring up. But we still need to spell those things out so that we have a common ground
foundation on which to build.
Rosalyn J wrote: The Principles of Jediism would also have to be removed. The verbage reads
A jedi (insert action) or does not (insert action) and my question is how is this not a law?
I agree. That is a belief about what a Jedi is. What qualifies a person to take on and maintain this title. Let's look at a couple verses in Romans and see if you agree that we need something similar.
Romans 2:28-29 King James Version (KJV)
28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.
So in other words, I think he have to create BALANCE between what we say as being BOTH who we are and who we're trying to be.
“For me, doctrines are more for outsiders looking in, so it needs to something that the non Jedi lay man can comprehend without being confused and thinking we're confused as a result. “
Rosalyn J wrote: This line doesn’t make any sense. Outsiders don’t really care about doctrine and as you said in your explenation of John the Baptist and Herod you cannot hold someone to your own standards if they do not believe in what you believe in.
Actually, Herod liked John. Outsiders care in the sense that we all wear labels. Doctrines help define the Jedi label. If someone is interested in Jediism they're going to check themselves against the label to see how well they match up. If the label doesn't really describe anything in particular then it is meaningless because everyone can simply call themselves a Jedi. I didn't call myself a Jedi until I made it to a certain point according to what the site said. So outsiders are going to care if they have an interest. If they don't have an interest then well of course they're not going to care what your doctrines are. Now if they disagree with you, they might take an interest in what you believe as well. Interest is still interest whether positive or negative. When I read the article that mentioned TOTJO I was very pleased that they got it right and that it was fairly represented. And that's because what we have is still good. It's not bad by any stretch. And it should be written (primarily) for interested parties. Like I said before, it can use hyperlinks to explain concepts more fully. And internally this could lead to whole lessons and teachings surrounding each concept that we can go deeper on. That's why hyperlinks were invented. But with attention spans what they are, the public doctrine is something people should be able to parse through very quickly, almost like something designed for marketing. Because that's part of what it does. I definitely read the Doctrine page before I even thought about submitting an application to join. I wanted to take it seriously and I wanted to read a serious set of beliefs.
Rosalyn J wrote: “But this is important because it is easy to say "love each other" but that takes for granted that everyone agrees on what that actually means in practice.”
Right, which is why there is the golden rule “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Not as you have had, and not as you interpret it as.
Bingo. If "love each other" was enough of a thing to say, Jesus wouldn't have had to explain it further. And recall what he said to the rich man who wanted to know what he needed to do to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yeshua's advice to him seemed extremely personal. YOU need to sell all your possessions. Compare this to the woman who only gave a little bit in offerings but it was all she had. So it is very relative and individualistic even though there are general commands. To the public we should offer the surface. But when we go deeper its about internalizing what Jedi means in a more narrow context. And this is where I always believed was the role of the training masters. Because, like Jesus, they could inspire and challenge their disciples based on their individual needs and personality. If I see someone is hot tempered I'm going to try to cool them down and get them to think more before they react and respond. But keep in mind that by the time Jesus came around there was already a well established religion and he was only trying to reform it. To do that involved trying to simplify and explain it to outsiders as well as Israelites who were misunderstanding it (or correctly understanding certain aspects) because of the complexity that had been heaped upon it with ritual cleaning and tzit tzit. That's why I think we need to separate stuff so that it's easier for the lay person to pick up. First you gotta pick the book up. Then you can start to read and understand it. But if no one can get through the summary on the back cover then why bother with reading every page to know what the book is about? People need to know what being a Jedi is about from reading our "cover".
Rosalyn J wrote: “So at the very least, I would say that our doctrines should separate those who have access to the "temple" from those who ... idk.... might murder younglings (or the intellectual equivalent)?”
You won’t reduce the number of radar flyers by doctrine. You will by relationship. By example. The doctrine is important, but it must be second to relationship.
True, but without law, you don't have a basis to snatch Anakin's key card. That was even part of Anakin's slide to the dark side; his belief that things weren't "fair". Imagine if someone just came at you and said, without any standards, guidelines, rules, regulations, "you can't do that." It would frustrate anyone because there would be too much subjective and biased judgment going on. It's better to have a cohesive point of reference (which is what the bible is) so that people can agree on the whys if not the hows. But if one person says "oh yeah that's a cool idea, Ros" and another person says "no, that's terrible" which do you go with? If we always get to choose then we'll always choose the opinion in our favor.
Rosalyn J wrote: To put it more succinctly, I can only hold YOU accountable if the relationship is two ways. I hold you accountable and you hold me accountable. But that relationship is...and has to be based on trust. If I don’t know you I don’t know you...ya know? I gotta know you before I ever wave the doctrine in front of your face. Because as you said, some people are on different parts of the journey. Every part of the journey has its measure of grace for the steps.
A great assumption is made as it concerns rank. That those with certain ranks “ought to be” here or there. Well maybe they are not. Irrespective of where they ought to be (in our minds), the fact is, they are human as we all are.
And I’ll tell you, I lived on a high horse as I moved up the ranks here. When I became a leader, my horse got stilts. The one thing that I remember is communicating with leaders and seeing their struggles and having them open up to me. One thing I feel like I lost was the ability to have open relationships with those who I was in community with.
Regardless of rank, we are one community. I just don’t want doctrine to get in the way. It doesn’t mean its not important. But it is priority 2
I agree with you. I try not to take for granted all the things that Christianity planted in my brain; which is why I still give it a lot of credit. One of those seeds is that the master is the greatest servant. The positions of higher authority exist in order to serve those underneath. Of course if we don't spell that out anywhere.... then it can also invite the idea that having power means those underneath are there to serve you. Rather, I think those underneath support leaders so that they can keep providing service to the greater community. If you were on a high horse, maybe that was before my time because remember you being accessible, present, and serving the community. You have to have a certain amount of confidence in order to utilize that kind of power but when balanced with some humility its mutually beneficial. I heard it said other masters are present but mostly read. I think that's cool but if they're present like ghosts are then it kind of sets a bad precedent.
You have to have a certain audacity (like Obama said) to take the reigns and really try to change things when others... don't. People like that are always needed and in short supply. They're more suited to be leaders. Not everyone is because not everyone has the same internal tools. Those things have to be cultivated. Like, you can't force someone who is anti-social to play a role better suited to a people person. That's not fair to them or to the people they need to deal with. That's why I like the idea (and I forgot who said it first) of having different classes like Jedi Consular vs Jedi Sentinel, etc. There is a way to do this in a more inclusive way while still having more directed/guided paths. I think rank is definitely a good thing, and although not everyone is going to handle it the same way, that's not necessarily the fault of the system. I would even recommend adding additional ranks. Everyone has a certain archetype that is a closer fit to who they are and could potentially be. You can then, beyond the novice level, have more specific instruction for each type. One could focus on research and study and help with the library/archives. And they can actually take quotes from different people and work with the IP team to extend the lessons into each classes. Another could focus on martial arts and health. They can write training manuals and train in VR simulations like Vader Immortal. We could have another class that delves more fully into meditation and philosophy and political and social sciences.
A lot of this does in fact depend on relationships like you were saying. At the same time, relationships will be strained without the balance of organization and rules so that we can meet and reset, if need be, expectations.
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(I’m loading this from the phone). “Ubiquitous” was a definite winner...Divine, Sacred & Universal were all tied with 3 votes each. The others got 1 or 2 a piece.
