Physical TOTJO Temple in Texas Project

steamboat28 wrote:

666 wrote: and the only way I can think that works, is making the temple, a way to make money, and that MAYBE doesn't look right.

Why not? it's what every other organized religion does.

True

but because when you order something, (store) or IDs/diplomas, the temple try to make it without a real profit, make me think,
but you are right

all religions make money in one way or other

666 wrote: You need a real income, to have a real temple.

I can see the logic in that... in a Greco-Roman, Western, egocentric, compartmentalized, reductionist, fragmented, linear thought process that counts on cleverness kind of way.

I agree with Whyte Horse.

You know where this starts? It starts with two people getting together regularly. When, five years down the road, they have a "congregation" of 40, and they build a building... Money will be involved in some way. Possibly, they will have to sell things. Maybe it will be donated. Maybe we'll become a charity.

The one thing I know: Freedom lies in the present moment. We have an infinite number of choices for each special moment. By saying: "This will happen" in a prophecy-like manner, we are reducing the number of options.

Being realistic doesn't mean limited.

The Christian church I went to as a teen started with a tent in the woods and existed that way for its first two years until the congregation grew large enough to warrant building a church... everything has to start small.

Naya wrote: The Christian church I went to as a teen started with a tent in the woods and existed that way for its first two years until the congregation grew large enough to warrant building a church... everything has to start small.

Dude, Occupy Jediism!

The problem is that we do already meet together. On the internet.
We just need one connecting place for all of us. An official one.

Drexid wrote: The problem is that we do already meet together. On the internet.

And you see how easy it is to get people involved when literally all they have to do is open a browser. Try getting them to actually drive somewhere. Good. Luck.

We just need one connecting place for all of us. An official one.

We have one. You mentioned it in the previous sentence.

If I lived on the same continent as other Jedi, the solution for me would be simple. I would invite people for meals, to group meditations, to classes I found interesting, to share important days on our calendar. I would welcome the Jedi I knew into my home.

In short, you make your Temple where you are.

If you want more of a sense of community, then reach out to those around you and build one.

The idea of "build it and they will come"... sure. Eventually. But no religion started with a temple. I was in Malta about a year ago and got to see where St Peter was said to have started preaching after the shipwreck. On a raised piece of rock in a shallow cave. (its extremely creepy to be honest. had a weird vibe)


There will never be just one physical connecting place. we are scattered all over the world. And I doubt we will ever have a "Rome", nor would we want one i think!


As for your maths.... there is a struggle to get enough people to donate to keeping the website running, and if people will not even pay for the use of this Temple, they will not pay for a Temple that they probably couldnt even get to.

nooo, I'm not saying to build and people will come (even though there would be a boost of people) I am suggesting to plan a real temple. Not in the sense that we have deadlines and goals, merely as allowing us the room for expansion and development.

With an official temple we would be able to inspire other temples to rise like a domino effect. These temples would not serve as weekly or monthly meetings, that is not what jediism is about. A year or half a year gathering would be the main purpose of these temples.
Just like you would see in the jedi movies, people could still be there via video communication like skype. Its about the sense of reality.

Drexid wrote: nooo, I'm not saying to build and people will come (even though there would be a boost of people) I am suggesting to plan a real temple. Not in the sense that we have deadlines and goals, merely as allowing us the room for expansion and development.

With an official temple we would be able to inspire other temples to rise like a domino effect. These temples would not serve as weekly or monthly meetings, that is not what jediism is about. A year or half a year gathering would be the main purpose of these temples.
Just like you would see in the jedi movies, people could still be there via video communication like skype. Its about the sense of reality.

So... you want us to buy land with money we do not have and build a Temple that we would use once every six months, or maybe only once a year.

Brenna wrote:

Drexid wrote: nooo, I'm not saying to build and people will come (even though there would be a boost of people) I am suggesting to plan a real temple. Not in the sense that we have deadlines and goals, merely as allowing us the room for expansion and development.

With an official temple we would be able to inspire other temples to rise like a domino effect. These temples would not serve as weekly or monthly meetings, that is not what jediism is about. A year or half a year gathering would be the main purpose of these temples.
Just like you would see in the jedi movies, people could still be there via video communication like skype. Its about the sense of reality.

So... you want us to buy land with money we do not have and build a Temple that we would use once every six months, or maybe only once a year.

all of these talks need to be more inflected with an air of realism.

The money required is near nothing ($2,000) for two years.(consider kickstarter as another method to gain money) There have been no aggressive tactics to gain donations because we haven't really needed it.

The temple would be used as much as is needed, but at our current size it would most likely be once a year or half a year. The purpose of this temple is not to drill sermons into your heads like a traditional church. If we met every week or month, we would eventually turn to the same problems other churches have(unless it was literally like a Buddhist monastery). The temple would be open to the public, but only official meet ups would be once or twice per year.

What is realistic to you?

Drexid wrote: The money required is near nothing ($2,000) for two years.(consider kickstarter as another method to gain money) There have been no aggressive tactics to gain donations because we haven't really needed it.

The temple would be used as much as is needed, but at our current size it would most likely be once a year or half a year. The purpose of this temple is not to drill sermons into your heads like a traditional church. If we met every week or month, we would eventually turn to the same problems other churches have(unless it was literally like a Buddhist monastery). The temple would be open to the public, but only official meet ups would be once or twice per year.

What is realistic to you?

the first realistic thing (if the money is there, and we need to define just the location)... can not be in the middle of nowhere ... even if they give you the land for free.
centralized, easy access, easy to reach or find.
AND like I say before, if this is realistic, and you are going to travel from around the world to visit this, minimum, a place to stay.

Why is a place to stay so important? Hotels are cheap and even give free breakfast.

My idea is that you do not want it by a city since pollution and other factors make it less homey and natural. In texas, it is by many cities as well as many parks and recreation. As a temple, it is a place to learn. You should be able to see the stars easily. With directions, everywhere is easy to find.

I argue for the sake of finding a solution.

Right so a question I posed earlier was... why do we need to spend $2000 on a temple when going to a park is free?

What about a swamp; those places are so full of life it would be spooky to meditate among all the frogs, insects etc, and probably really cheap LOL. Full of the living Force!!! No Banjo's allowed.

Instead of looking for some visceral connection to members at a private themed location for general activity, how about looking for a specific visceral activity themed for its functional purpose to ones spiritual development. If something is functional then it could perhaps more easily justify any concept of expenditure, in creation and visitation.

Most things are already available, but a few good unique ideas bundled together and you could have a spiritual development park in the making, hire it out to companies to get their Force on with corporate weekends etc.

Otherwise I think a lot of the University's around are very much Temple-esk, and being places of knowledge is very apt - perhaps student groups is an avenue for consolidation of people in the real world.

Drexid wrote: Why is a place to stay so important? Hotels are cheap and even give free breakfast.

My idea is that you do not want it by a city since pollution and other factors make it less homey and natural. In texas, it is by many cities as well as many parks and recreation. As a temple, it is a place to learn. You should be able to see the stars easily. With directions, everywhere is easy to find.

I argue for the sake of finding a solution.

if you can not stay there, any park in the world is perfect. we don't need a place, where you can not stay, that maybe is closed when you arrive, or maybe you are the only one there....
if you are going to be alone in the middle of nowhere Texas .... whats the point?, i am alone now, and I never met other Jedi in person.

if you have a temple in a touristic place, you can have more people interesting in jediism, also make money to keep the temple up and running
that's the only way I found a real temple can work/exist right now.

anyway, convince me that your idea can work.

666 wrote:

Drexid wrote: Why is a place to stay so important? Hotels are cheap and even give free breakfast.

My idea is that you do not want it by a city since pollution and other factors make it less homey and natural. In texas, it is by many cities as well as many parks and recreation. As a temple, it is a place to learn. You should be able to see the stars easily. With directions, everywhere is easy to find.

I argue for the sake of finding a solution.

if you can not stay there, any park in the world is perfect. we don't need a place, where you can not stay, that maybe is closed when you arrive, or maybe you are the only one there....
if you are going to be alone in the middle of nowhere Texas .... whats the point?, i am alone now, and I never met other Jedi in person.

if you have a temple in a touristic place, you can have more people interesting in jediism, also make money to keep the temple up and running
that's the only way I found a real temple can work/exist right now.

anyway, convince me that your idea can work.

Actually the best place to be alone is in a bar in the city :side:

I don't think you'd get away with a Jedi theme park without Lucas getting a big fat cut. If the temple hosts corporate retreats then I will be there with my cattle prod.

Akkarin wrote: Right so a question I posed earlier was... why do we need to spend $2000 on a temple when going to a park is free?

Because you can't put your weeeed in there.

Whyte Horse wrote: I don't think you'd get away with a Jedi theme park without Lucas getting a big fat cut. If the temple hosts corporate retreats then I will be there with my cattle prod.

Haha, yea no, I don't mean Star Wars theme when I say theme'd. I just mean built to serve some (doctrinal?) purpose - education, spirituality etc