Which First Steps?

Some random thoughts after reading the first chapter of a book I'm reading . Thought I'd open it up for discussion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylZGFzl048c&feature=youtu.be

My first step was detaching myself from material possession. I just took all my stuff and sold it and bought a plane ticket to the other side of the Earth. After that I found the Island of the Gods, met my true love, and embarked on a journey that would change my life forever.

Very interesting discussion...had to think about it for a little bit. Probably a few points to note is even each small step we take can lead towards a bigger step, and really no matter how you scale the step, whether a big or small one. Each step starts with its own set of steps, lifting of the foot, leaning forward, ending with your foot touching the ground again and shifting your weight onto that new foot etc.

each of those steps can probably be broken down into smaller steps such as muscles contracting and so on if you really want to break the metaphor down.

Rather I'd look at steps as just experiences, or even choices. In the end its the ones that you find the most significant that probably would matter in this situation.

The one that I can probably think of is the day I finally decided that after years of abuse from what I would call some rather...peculiar christian practices from a variety of churches I went to in my youth years, and many years after that of being a pure on atheist that wouldn't even identify as one just simply nothing exists period. Coming to a point in my life where I start thinking about existence and purpose and learning to set aside all my lifetime supply of terrible experiences and acknowledge that there is something out there that does exist, that is better then what I think the world was at the time. To start figuring it out on my own, and then stumbling across something called "Jediism" that almost fit what self analyzed views of what existence is for me.

Learning to let go of the past is what brought me here....that step...that moment...that choice...that consequence...that experience....whatever you wish to label it.

I could go off on many tangents of chicken or the egg and whether those "peculier" practices and all of those events were instrumental to bringing me to that point and so on all the way back to birth, but I still would label that specific situation as a turning point. As the most significant change from A to B, or C to J or whatever term you want to use. We if anything are not but a sum of all of our experiences/choices/consequences at any rate anyway.

The core is all!!! Long live the AI!!

But yea seriously, every day we walk through the light before laying down to punctuate our passage through time. So every day we take a first step, and I don't think we walk blindly, so I sort of intepret your question to be what do we take with us, and when did we start building that - in regards to our Jedi path. You can imagine the symbology of the lightsaber there, in that metaphorical sense of a tool to walk with at your side, so not to wander blindly, being both a light and something effective in dealing with circumstance.

The tricky thing is that goes back to before I called it a Jedi path, and even before 1978 when I saw the first movie. So the first steps on that for me would be just experiencing and recognizing the beauty and power of nature and my capacity to relate to it in ways beyond explanation. Our exposure to the world seems to shape how we grow to some extent, especially early on, and as one becomes more the more indepedant and free they further increase just how much they can control both their outer and inner alchemy. But I'm a capitalist, and one who happens to think the concept of ownership is better replaced with stewardship, so I might have a slightly different view on the concept of freedom then some. One thing is for certain, while we cannot control our environment that we grow up in, we can try to control how we react to it more the further we get from it.

since everything is built on whatever came before it, it seems to me that theres no way to identify our first steps except when we mean our literal first steps of walking as babies - in every other instance "steps" is a metaphor for progress or at least movement, the context of the movement and the specific progress not being indicated by the term

how do you isolate the individual decision from all of the learning that had to take place before the decision could even be made?

if you allow for the Force and the inter-connectedness of all things, our first steps go back at least to the big bang and the beginning of time itself

we are sort of like droplets of water at the crest of a wave, seeming to ourselves to be totally autonomous individuals, but actually a collection of fleeting, minuscule beings which were created and are being driven along by a host of elements and forces that are far more vast, enduring, and powerful than we are even capable of understanding

to the degree that we do actually have choice, (and i think we do have a lot of choice within our limitations) i would guess the only step that ever really matters (or at least the one that always matters most) is the next step

a more pragmatic/useful response might be.... the first step is to identify a destination, outcome, or goal

until there is a destination/goal, all steps are hypothetically equal and (in pragmatic terms) irrelevant

Choices . The age old question. I find for my self the moment I made myself take responsibility for each choice I began to take a larger part in my own personal development. It's easy to join so and so or do like them so to speak but then I began to ... Do like me. The beginning steps CAN always begin with small steps OR take the leap. It depends on us and our focus. Some humans have no self focus and have never taken time to think for ... Them selfs as far as what we want to learn.
Example : My library is filled with stuff o have chose to learn and keep handy . Dictionaries thesaurus dinosaurs Campbell Tolkien Bob villa comic books c s Lewis bible doctrine Jedi doctorine how to build a fort how to build a FOB how to fix the broken in heart bandaid or wood. So on and so forth it's filled .... With my choice and so crudely we can fill up our selfs with the things we want to know and keep. Where do u begin . I began with ... Bruce Lees book on J K D. Now I have 20 plus shells on many a fine read.
I hope this crude example helps some see the ability we have to make our selfs and all it takes is that ... First step . Keep seeking , you Will find ! Thank you for sharing, always a pleasure ! May the Force be with y'all!