Physical TOTJO Temple in Texas Project

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

People are more important than the place. I haven't seen a coherent argument for building a temple except from the fact that a lot of people seem to want one.

Why build a library when virtually every city has at least one? As taxpayers you're already paying for one! The same goes for gardens, parks, and venues to meet in.

It just seems greedy to me, or elitist. At best, it is an odd kind of yearning to be able to physically locate a virtual presence.

On the other hand, the things that people want to happen in and around these temples should be encouraged.

Drexid, it sounds like you want to build. So build. Find people who are interested in co-op building and get involved. Report on the experience in your journals. Invite Jedi to join you on co-op builds but remember that it doesn't have to strictly involve "Jedi only". Everyone is a Jedi.

The same thing goes for just about every reason for having a temple. Gardens? Do gardening. Share your experience. Stargazing? Tell us where to go, what to look for. Invite people to join you. Camping/trekking/bushwalking? I'd love to do it. Every experience that brings someone closer to their understanding of the Force should be shared, explained, and encouraged. Having one physical location to do those things would probably weaken the experience, rather than enrich it.

Sorry. This is getting to be a rant now. Drexid, I hope you don't feel that this is only aimed at you!

I think that after all is said and done, everyone here will come to the realization that you need a temple so you can bail out of the rat race. Until that day comes, you will all keep looking out your windows beyond the horizon thinking there has got to be more to life than this.

Yeah, it would be nice to have a physical temple for spiritual retreats or group gatherings, but we tend to be spread so thin that having our own temple that the order owns just wouldn't be practical right now. And instead of trying to force it, it would be better if things just progressed naturally. When enough Jedi gather in one area, maybe they'll start having weekly services in someone's living room. Then maybe they'll rent a small space. Eventually they could raise the funds from the group in the area to fun an actual piece of land, the same way local churches of other denominations handle their own funding. But to just say, "Our headquarters is in Texas, so we should have a temple there" doesn't make sense.

As far as people wanting a place to go for retreats, there are plenty of places around that groups can rent for a weekend or even a full week. Many of them are religiously affiliated, but they tend to allow anyone to rent as long as part of your stay involves a spiritual service of some kind for your group. So if there was a group in one area that wanted to go on a retreat, that would be an option that wouldn't involve owning land that would only be used sporadically.

If I may, perhaps a temple can best be funded by guardians and sentinels performing missions, and by consulars offering facilities within the temple itself that people can use. That is the structure and dynamic of the fictional temple, after all.

Vagabond wrote: If I may, perhaps a temple can best be funded by guardians and sentinels performing missions, and by consulars offering facilities within the temple itself that people can use. That is the structure and dynamic of the fictional temple, after all.

inb4 "we're not fictional Jedi! *flounce*"

Vagabond wrote: If I may, perhaps a temple can best be funded by guardians and sentinels performing missions, and by consulars offering facilities within the temple itself that people can use. That is the structure and dynamic of the fictional temple, after all.

I've avoided becoming involved in this recent discussion, as a. It's irrelevance to where we are NOW as a Temple of Jediism, and b. Someone usually says something I would have before I can post it, and it's worded better.

The members here have real lives, jobs to keep down, bills to pay, families to care for. What many have proposed here is simply unrealistic.

The names you are using in your last post Vagabond, are merely fictional. Although they may be acknowledged and respected elsewhere, their titles and meanings are purely fictional here. You also referenced how things would be done according to a "Fictional Temple, in the mythos of Star Wars.

Jediism's BIGGEST problem are people who cannot not separate the movies and fiction of Star Wars from the Religion of Jediism.....which has little to do with the above mentioned. I've said it many times (here I go again, no offence). The Temple and Jediism would benefit greatly if they separated themselves as much as possible from the aesthetics of Star Wars...

Vagabond wrote: If I may, perhaps a temple can best be funded by guardians and sentinels performing missions, and by consulars offering facilities within the temple itself that people can use. That is the structure and dynamic of the fictional temple, after all.

The fictional Temple was also payed for by the Republic, but as for a real world facility, I don't see people requesting the aid of Jedi, nor people paying for that aid. And I really don't see the Temple charging for it either! I know I do volunteer work, and keep those in my AoR safe as I can, but I would never ask to be paid for that work.

Zenchi wrote:

Vagabond wrote: If I may, perhaps a temple can best be funded by guardians and sentinels performing missions, and by consulars offering facilities within the temple itself that people can use. That is the structure and dynamic of the fictional temple, after all.

I've avoided becoming involved in this recent discussion, as a. It's irrelevance to where we are NOW as a Temple of Jediism, and b. Someone usually says something I would have before I can post it, and it's worded better.

The members here have real lives, jobs to keep down, bills to pay, families to care for. What many have proposed here is simply unrealistic.

The names you are using in your last post Vagabond, are merely fictional. Although they may be acknowledged and respected elsewhere, their titles and meanings are purely fictional here. You also referenced how things would be done according to a "Fictional Temple, in the mythos of Star Wars.

Jediism's BIGGEST problem are people who cannot not separate the movies and fiction of Star Wars from the Religion of Jediism.....which has little to do with the above mentioned. I've said it many times (here I go again, no offence). The Temple and Jediism would benefit greatly if they separated themselves as much as possible from the aesthetics of Star Wars...

Which is impossible so long as we keep the name.

I like the name, and would leave if we attempted to change it....

I was calling myself thatlong before totjo and the online community existed...

It's not impossible, it only takes some effort focusing more on what the Jedi in the movies were based upon instead of the fiction itself, which is to a large extent, in my opinion, crap...