What "world" means to a Jedi

Hello everyone!

being quite new to this website, I looked upon the various topics this site has to offer. Doing so I stumbled over the Sermon: „What is basic teaching“. At the end of it it told:

I am a Jedi:
I accept the things I cannot change;
I have courage to change the things I can;
I have wisdom to know the difference.
I am a Jedi:
I live in the present;
I enjoy one moment at a time;
I accept hardships as a pathway to peace;
I take this world as it is, not as I would have it;
I am a Jedi:
I trust The Force;
In doing so things become right;
In doing so I am content;
Forever in our everlasting life.
You are a Jedi.
May The Force be with you, always.

However something irritated me after I first read this. Now a day later I know what it was.
I also read the doctrine more than once. I feel completely fine with its content (knowing well that it will be a long journey to completely understand it and live by it).
I know that I should be patient about becoming a Jedi. But I really don't understand the following line:

I take this world as it is, not as I would have it;

To come right to my problem: Why should I have the courage to change the things I can when I should take this world as it is?

Am I misunderstanding what the word „world“ means to a Jedi?

To be honest I don't like the image of a world to whom I am a prisoner to (I exaggerated here by purpose). I would like to contribute to this earth and its society in one or another way and therefore by action or inaction shape it for the better.

What are your perceptions on the world surrounding you?

Perhaps it is too early on my journey to ask such a question.
But perhaps you are able to give me a little hint

May the force be with you

The only things you can truly change are within yourself. Change yourself and your perspective, and you consequently change the world. These internal changes often take the greatest courage.

Never too early to ask questions and try to understand.

In this context to me “I take this world as it is, not as I would have it;” goes right along with “Accept the things I cannot change”.

I think “World” here is “Environment”. I can’t be angry that a tree’s leaves are green. Or that it loses them in winter. Even if I want the tree to be blue. Things don’t always go my way. When I make something, it doesn’t always turn out the way I imagined it would. I can get angry and throw it away, or I can accept it and work with it as it is.

Now for your question of what is “World”, for me, that word encompasses the world we can see with our physical eyes, and the spirit worlds that overlay that that we can only see with our heart and mind. But I can also tell you all about my personal world. We each experience it differently. We each see our own little piece of it. The people that are in it, the things that I see, the things that I feel. This is my personal world. It’s that world I’m trying to make larger.

Within the parameters of our reality, and all its dualities (good/bad, up/down, in/out, back/front), you have both things you can control, and things you cannot. With all dualities, we only know one aspect because of its contrast with its other (we can only see a light color upon a darker one for example, or the fact that we have the concept of "evil" to thank, for giving us a reference to know what "good" is to us). In this same way, we have on one side of the coin, things we can control, and on the other, things we cannot control. Along the pattern described above, we would only know "control" because of things we cannot control, and vise versa. In a world such as ours, this is why we would be wise to accept the things we cannot control, as they give added value to that which we can. Rejecting one, will result in the rejection of the other, naturally. To accept the world as it is, is accepting the aspects of it with which you are not to control, for they provide the parameters for the things you can control among it (such as your own reaction to other people and situations outside of said control). Both arise mutually, and so, both are necessary.

Being quite new here myself, I can't offer an "official" interpretation but I can share my thoughts on this with you. I have also struggled in my life to come to some sort of understanding what the "world" which surrounds us actually is. Is it something which is just "there" and beyond our control (in the sense that our relationship to it is pre-determined by some kind of unchangeable destiny which governs the lives of the individual or the world as a whole) or is it something we can shape and mold by interacting in the world and thus changing it?

I believe that both interpretations have some truth in them. As individuals - and even more so as Jedi which have voluntarily submitted ourselves to a certain code of living - we are free agents, meaning that we always have a choice of what to do if we are confronted with a certain situation in "our" world (meaning the small portion of the world we come into contact with daily). However, we are not in total control even of the small world around us, so we constantly have to make choices which have consequences. These consequences are sometimes beyond our control although we have participated in creating them. As a simple example, let's say we want to cross a busy street in a hurry and the traffic lights are red. We can either choose to wait (and risk being late as a consequence) or we can run across the street before the light turns green and - if we are unfortunate - get hit by a car.

This example shows very clearly how pre-determined things interact with our choices. We have to confront the situation "as it is" (e.g. the street with lots of cars), we can't make the cars disappear. We can only choose how to react to the given situation. Our reaction to a certain extent determines what happens next. This would be what Eastern philosophies call "everyday Karma".

As far as changing the world, we should be aware that almost every choice we make also has a potential impact on others. For example, in the example above, if we run across the street while the lights are red, a little child might see us doing that, assume it's ok to do the same and get hit by a car. We were not directly responsible for him being hit by that car, but we have to a certain extent "changed" the outcome of this child's destiny (because he probably otherwise would have waited for the lights to turn green and crossed over safely).

This all sounds very philosophical, but, what I'm basically trying to say is, everyone and everything in the world is in some way or another inter-connected. A Jedi might say, the whole world is "one in the Force". So everything we do "changes" the world around us, whether we are consciously aware of it or not. That is what makes us unique as individuals: The world would be different if we weren't around.

Of course, this also applies to large groups of people such as countries or states. Big changes in the world at large (for example preserving the environment) can only be achieved by many people working together for the common good. But even this kind of "big" change starts with a conscious choice of the individuals involved.

So, summing up, I think the world is somewhat pre-determined because we are confronted with certain given situations beyond our influence. However, in which way we interact with these situations is entirely up to us (and our social, moral, educational, practical values). That's why the great philosopher Descartes once said: "Man is a free agent in a pre-determined world".

I hope that wasn't too long-winded now but I actually wrote a paper on this topic for university last year :laugh:

Lenao wrote:

I take this world as it is, not as I would have it;

To come right to my problem: Why should I have the courage to change the things I can when I should take this world as it is?

Am I misunderstanding what the word „world“ means to a Jedi?

If you map out a journey, you must include your starting point.
If you would build a desk, you begin by looking at the space where the desk isn't, but will go.

The first step to changing the world is to accept it as it is. Only then do we have the wisdom to see our changes properly enacted.

Ve-Lo-Zi wrote: Is it something which is just "there" and beyond our control (in the sense that our relationship to it is pre-determined by some kind of unchangeable destiny which governs the lives of the individual or the world as a whole) or is it something we can shape and mold by interacting in the world and thus changing it?

Probably wouldn't work as a term paper, but I find this question can be summed up by the quote I use in my signature line...

“I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if we're all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze. But I think maybe it's both. Maybe both are happening at the same time.” - Forrest Gump

I was thinking about it during the recent Sermon, and noticed how it seemed to flow with the Three Tenets perhaps seperated by the 'I am a Jedi'. I further split it up into fragments to explore more of that type of interpretation, my notes on the context the statement is meant to be interpreted follows each line;

Focus
I am a Jedi: / affirmation 1 of 3
I accept the things I cannot change; // Focus Focus
I have courage to change the things I can; // Focus Knowledge
I have wisdom to know the difference. // Focus Wisdom

Knowledge
I am a Jedi: / reaffirmation 2 of 3
I live in the present; // Knowledge Focus
I enjoy one moment at a time; // Knowledge Knowledge (the now-ledge)
I accept hardships as a pathway to peace; // Knowledge Wisdom
I take this world as it is, not as I would have it; /// Sum of two prior; Focus, Knowledge

Wisdom
I am a Jedi: / reaffirmation 3 of 3
I trust The Force; // Wisdom Focus (decisive?)
In doing so things become right; // Wisdom Knowledge
In doing so I am content; // Wisdom Wisdom (serenity)
Forever in our everlasting life. /// Sum of three prior; ie the Force
You are a Jedi. //// termination

So then for me, any one line is meant to sit within the overall structure and message, and not really intended as a standalone rule for literal interpretation and wider application...... just my own take on it though.

And so further the 'world' in it for me, just represents the perceived set of environment at that time (available knowledge), and with awareness of ones own personal bias and agenda's it is therefore possible to 'see clearly' ie with practical focus and knowledge in preparation for wisdom.