Its time to reclaim religion

steamboat28 wrote:

Sirch Nayr wrote: The problem I have with this speech is that she is taking issues that have two sides to the story such as BLM, and Aleppo, and she insinuates that if you do not want to act on those things that you are in the wrong. That's a very arrogant way of looking at things if you do not have all the facts.

Just because an issue has two sides doesn't mean those sides are equal.

Its more likely that in pealing back the layers we doscover that an issue has more than two sides even.

When I was a younger Jedi, I was taught the following:
Day by day we use three codes (or mantras)

The Yet Code
(As in "emotion, yet peace" etc)
This is the code of balance

The Skywalker Code
(As in "Jedi are the guardians of peace, they use their knowledge to defend and protect" etc.)

or in my case the TOTJO Jedi Creed.
("I am a Jedi an instrument of peace" etc.)

These are Codes/Creeds of Direction. In other words they give us a mission

And then there is the No code. Its the code of action.
(There is no emotion, there is peace")

Most of the time we are living our lives in the yet code, but inevitably we arrive at a point where action must be taken. Its at that point we must rely on the direction code to remind us of our mission in the situation.

Once we have settled on an action to take that is in line with the mission, we can run it through the action code and ask ourselves

Do we feel peace, do we have knowledge, do we have harmony, and do we have serenity about the action we are going to take?

The problem with wanting all knowledge is that it paralyses us and permits us to do nothing. But our mission isn't to harm others and our beliefs don't really give us the means.

Why not consider doing something now with the knowledge you have, and, should the knowledge you have in the future change, change the action?

This is a nice call to action speech, but I'm just not sure how it would look.

This whole time I found myself considering if Buddhists, Hindus, or Taoists were losing folks like the Abrahamic religions? Or if it just 'religion' as a whole?

Either way- I can see how religion can be found to be wrote and empty (no pun intended). But then again, so is your computer or a calculator. Which reminds me..

You get out what you put in, and unfortunately I wonder that the commodified world we live in supports the "put in as least as possible for the most profitable return" mentality, and it has crept into religion. The worst part is, is that the commodity of spirit isn't really sold in 6, 12, or 30 packs- and if it isn't available to me in drive-through fashion, "to hell with it, I can drive down the road and not only get my slosh, but I can get my smokes without getting out of the car."

Look at how academics call us the "smorgasbord" or "buffet religion"; like there is something to be "got" from being an observant of something.

So I wonder if there is something more that religion is missing- and it may be wise for us to pay attention to it. How do we connect, contain, and continue the values of our Path for others, across the board?

Do we perform novel or BETTER rituals? Do we have a 'clearer' or more pragmatic truth to share? Do we serve pizza and beer at our meetings?

Personally, I don't know that answer, but I'm glad you brought it up for us to think about.

... and pizza and beer at my place.

J. K. Barger wrote: This is a nice call to action speech, but I'm just not sure how it would look.

This whole time I found myself considering if Buddhists, Hindus, or Taoists were losing folks like the Abrahamic religions? Or if it just 'religion' as a whole?

I think we don't really hear about the Eastern religions losing followers because in general their particular dogma doesn't appear to be about "how many followers we can get". I imagine it really doesn't matter to them because their path is a personal one. One of the drawbacks of a religion that compels its followers to convert as many as possible is that it can take the focus off of their original intended purpose. Just my $0.02.