Modern Prophets

Edan wrote: Is there anyone you might consider to be a modern prophet? Do you think there is a place for prophets within Jediism?

I can't think of one off the top of my head.

I personally wouldn't call them prophets (even if I meant inspired teachers) but I think there are a lot of enlightened teachers within Jediism. Some here at this Temple, some in other communities. I would think there will always be a place for them.

I don't think there are any modern prophets.
I think prophet meant historically insight into the future coming from outside the person.

I think there were insightful people historically and there are insightful people presently.

There are many individuals whose work is studied that seems to have more relevance now than at the time of its creation, if you're including the predictive or visionary sense of the word. Nicolai Tesla and Alan Turing are two examples that come to my mind.

I think it is hard to judge future significance at the time of a work's creation. Surely there are many people working today whose ideas are forward thinking and will underpin our future.... of course, there are also so many who are receiving top honors whose work won't be relevant at all.

I'm not able to edit that last post for some reason, I wanted to add that I realize I basically made the same point as Mareeka. Sorry for the redundancy!

I personally have some difficulty with the word, myself. As having more than one meaning, one has been rather tainted by the other in many of my experiences. In the dial-up BBS days I actually knew someone who went by the screen name "Prophet" - he was obsessed with astrology, and was always talking about his visions of the "war with China" as unfolding in front of us, and soon to full throttle at any moment. Of course, this was in 1995/6. He also had quite a big ego as well (I guess you'd have to to call yourself a prophet)!

All of Nostradamus's "prophecies" are much like Rorschach tests - only holding meaning in the eye of the beholder, in hindsight.

Now, in the more grounded definition - that of spiritual teachers - each of us can find spiritual teachers wherever we may look, including musicians and writers, etc. When thinking in the sense of spiritual leaders, I do think there is a place in Jediism for spiritual leaders, as we are all capable of - and encouraged in the act of - leading by example. We are all spiritual leaders if we are willing to be.

I think anyone can be prophetic, but to claim to be a prophet I think they'd need to have a higher level of accuracy and certainty, such perhaps they'd have to predict the nature and circumstances at the least, and ideally either time or level of detail that made it unique. Basically ways to determine accuracy... otherwise fiction authors writing about the future will often get a lot of things correct... but then again were they predicting it or creating it (implanting ideas in the minds of people who go onto actualize it)!!?

I thought it might be something to come up with a way of remembering Jedi that have passed by coming up with an honorific term- mostly as a means of preventing anyone from calling someone in the community a god/goddess of the path lol. I still can't come up with a good term, but I now that prophet is a terrible word to associate with us. It inspires a particular concept of what the person did. Even "Master" implies that we believe the person can be reached directly, but the Jedi Path doesn't define what happens in the afterlife, so that doesn't really work either.

We're not prophets, but in life we are stewards of the Jedi Path. After life, we're examples of one means for living the Jedi Path. If you want to come up with an honorific term for something that represents "Example of the Path", I think it would be a far better term to associate with those we look up to in the community.

Alethea Thompson wrote: I thought it might be something to come up with a way of remembering Jedi that have passed by coming up with an honorific term- mostly as a means of preventing anyone from calling someone in the community a god/goddess of the path lol. I still can't come up with a good term, but I now that prophet is a terrible word to associate with us. It inspires a particular concept of what the person did. Even "Master" implies that we believe the person can be reached directly, but the Jedi Path doesn't define what happens in the afterlife, so that doesn't really work either.

We're not prophets, but in life we are stewards of the Jedi Path. After life, we're examples of one means for living the Jedi Path. If you want to come up with an honorific term for something that represents "Example of the Path", I think it would be a far better term to associate with those we look up to in the community.

Not to belittle anything, but back in star wars galaxies days when someone retired/quit/passed etc we joking but also out of respect called them blue glowies aka force ghosts, I just thought it was a neat thing to note. Not necessarily a suggestion.

Alethea Thompson wrote: I thought it might be something to come up with a way of remembering Jedi that have passed by coming up with an honorific term- mostly as a means of preventing anyone from calling someone in the community a god/goddess of the path lol. I still can't come up with a good term, but I now that prophet is a terrible word to associate with us. It inspires a particular concept of what the person did. Even "Master" implies that we believe the person can be reached directly, but the Jedi Path doesn't define what happens in the afterlife, so that doesn't really work either.

We're not prophets, but in life we are stewards of the Jedi Path. After life, we're examples of one means for living the Jedi Path. If you want to come up with an honorific term for something that represents "Example of the Path", I think it would be a far better term to associate with those we look up to in the community.

I don't know if the term would apply to EVERY Jedi who has passed, as we all display different levels of virtues of merit, but I'm rather fond of the word "paragon".

I definitely prefer the "inspired teacher" definition of prophet, since people who claim to predict the future are generally meteorologists or madmen (or both) in today's world. By the "inspired teacher" definition, social reformers and activists like Toyohiko Kagawa and Martin Luther King, Jr. would be considered great modern prophets. Indeed, in some Christian denominations (like Anglicanism) both men are considered exactly that.

While I will always pause to remember the teachings of Kagawa on his feast day, I don't believe in revering people so highly as much as teachings. If someone teaches something great, something that helps improve society in such a massive way that the world around them is forever and immeasurably changed, I think that makes them a prophet. My aunt, who taught me so much about being compassionate and kind to all living beings, was a well-respected teacher in the Zen Buddhist tradition she was a part of. I think I'd consider her a modern prophet too.

But the words we use for these people isn't as important, imo, as what we do with their teachings. As Jedi I feel like that ought to be the focus, rather than the people themselves.