Further Religious Structure

Koffee wrote: My proposal was more along the lines of various Temple leaders gathering to create a more sophisticated theology, but my impression from responses is that such a product will probably arise by other means. .

If this is something you're interested in, then your timing is rather perfect. There have been ongoing discussions about this exact topic of late. If you read through the forums you will no doubt see the various threads where it has come up.

Feel free to add your thoughts.

Koffee wrote: ...I suppose the scripture must await the appearance of a religious hero...

Curiosity and a general scholarly interest in both comparative religion and religious phenomena in general. Daoism is perhaps one of my favorite religions, and I find many parallels here (although this should come as no surprise). I advocate the religious philosophy known as perennialism, and I'm interested in studying Jediism in order to investigate the degree to which the perennial truth as I understand it manifests within its particular religious expression.

Brenna wrote:
If this is something you're interested in, then your timing is rather perfect. There have been ongoing discussions about this exact topic of late. If you read through the forums you will no doubt see the various threads where it has come up.

Feel free to add your thoughts.

Sounds promising. I'll look into it.

Well, lol, I understand some of your words....

I've just experienced life, and wandered through, enjoying my time, and most of life's lessons along the way...

I'm not to scholarly, but I am experienced, :lol:...

Street smarts instead of book smarts...

But, if my rube ways are too unintelligible, there are some smarter folks here too, lol....

Jestor wrote: Well, lol, I understand some of your words....

I've just experienced life, and wandered through, enjoying my time, and most of life's lessons along the way...

I'm not to scholarly, but I am experienced, :lol:...

Street smarts instead of book smarts...

But, if my rube ways are too unintelligible, there are some smarter folks here too, lol....

Meh, I don't judge. I appreciate wisdom regardless of the terms in which it's conveyed and the source from which it springs.

Koffee wrote: Curiosity and a general scholarly interest in both comparative religion and religious phenomena in general. Daoism is perhaps one of my favorite religions, and I find many parallels here (although this should come as no surprise). I advocate the religious philosophy known as perennialism, and I'm interested in studying Jediism in order to investigate the degree to which the perennial truth as I understand it manifests within its particular religious expression.

Hi Koffee, and welcome to our temple!

I'm confident you will find yourself exceptionally confortable around here as Jediism is (at least to me) well clothed in the base of perennialism, for which is explored throughout the IP from Watts to Campbell, and more - Jediism is quite a syncretic religion. Many of us here also have a warm reverence for the Tao Te Ching (especially myself and my teacher Alexandre Orion). You will find various references to its chapters through certain discussions we have.

I'm looking forward to seeing how you may enjoy what we have been doing here and hope to see you around often.

Welcome to the Temple.

Regarding a need or desire for a sophisticated theology, many of us already have these, on an individual basis. However many of us feel our core message doesn't require any additional complexity, and instead choose to extrapolate our own approaches from a few basic rules - perhaps not even all of the rather simple doctrine you've read, most of which follows from the Code given enough consideration.

Personally one of the vectors of my life is to simplify, rather than to elaborate. I also came from Taoism (I've done a little work on this basis here ), but prefer the Jedi way because it is simpler, and therefore represents a real alternative. The action of the Force is change. A large, rigid body of theology does nothing to represent our core beliefs in this fluidity and the validity of individual, subjective experience.

Given our widely varying conceptions of what the Force actually means, one might find a phenomenology of it somewhat elusive. Fair warning

We are working on the "religious structure". But this takes the form of more 'pulling down' than 'building' ...

We don't necessarily need more or better Doctrine ;
We don't need more elaborate theology ;
We do not need more intricate ideology --

-- we need to dance to the rhythm of the music ...

... rather than against it.

Koffee wrote: Hello all, I'm interested in this temple. I feel it would benefit from further structure. As such, I propose a Jedi scripture constituted by doctrine, teachings, and stories meant to illustrate both. In this scripture the Jedi theology could be further elaborated. This scripture would easily be distributed to all members at a non-profit fee.

I'm sorry, but I have to completely disagree. As I think some have already alluded to, making things more rigid and defined only limits everything further. Where does this desire come from, for structure and definition and institutionalization? All that accomplishes is closing our minds rather than opening them. When the Jedi community was at its height, there was little to no structure. That freedom gave birth to great things.

The Force flows freely, disobeys whatever rules we place on it, expands beyond any human comprehension. To think that we can write it out, include it all in a book is insulting to the Force (if such a thing is possible).

Looking for answers....

All I keep finding are more questions, lol....

Well put Jestor

If handled with care, I feel Jediism could yield a scripture that, in beauty and scope, could rival either the Dao De Jing, Bhagavat Gita, Upanishads, or even Qur'an.

Not that I consider myself THAT great a writer, I have written something along those lines in an effort to pass on and inspire ideas about the Force:

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