My Opinion. Jestor's Lie

From Jestor in my Request thread.

Funnily enough, I don't seem to recall any "light" teachings here...

Really?
Look at the Oath that is required to be a member.
Look at the Codes that are required to be followed according to oath.
All that is light teaching.

So Jestor I will have to disagree and I will say that TOTJO only promotes Light Teaching and nothing else.

I think I replied to that thread with this which I stand by still:

Akkarin wrote:

steamboat28 wrote: Um. Forgive me, but most of this stuff seems pretty stereotypically "Light" to me.

Perhaps, but I just stick to 'Jedi' and let others worry about the light and dark.

Jedi typically meaning Light sided.

Of course, in the expanded universe, there were Dark Jedi, however, originally, and in keeping with Campbells work the Jedi were the heroes, who were stereotypically Light-sided, and the Sith, of which George Lucas based Darth Sidious off of Satan, were the villains, or adversaries.

So, while you can argue semantics as much as you want, to argue that people have the wrong preconceived notions, is a bit of a stretch.

It is argued here that people tick to labels, and yet, you use those labels...Now, if I go shopping for say...Mayonnaise and it is red and made of tomatoes, there is going to be a bit of a misunderstanding.

The people at the grocery store could argue im too attached to labels, but as a consumer, looking for clear communication of what I want and am looking for well...it seems pretty clear who is a bit confused.

Not to say your selling anything, but at the same time, people are coming here looking to be Jedi, and that is a word, taken from fiction, with pretty clearly communicated methodologies.

A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, but thats not entirely the point of calling it a rose.

Especially with Valentines day just around the corner.

Personally, what others see as wisdom in "Just being" I see people who dont actually know who they are, or what they want.

That is of course my opinion, based off my observations

Certainly, it is no surprise I align myself with the Dark, or Sith.

This seems to be a limiting factor at TOTJO, but I simply see it as knowing who I am and what I want.

You know, awareness, mindfulness, growing, etc,etc cliche, cliche.

To where some might see a choosing like that limiting. I see it as door opening to untold possibilities, though not unrealistic ones.

Of course, I do not define Darkness, or being a Sith by morals and ethics, nor do I define Darkness by a dichotomy of Light. So there is a distinct difference in how I have seen it approached most everywhere in online forums and Force realist communities.

Some might say, Darkness is half of a whole, and it is, if I am using a dichotomy of Light as a crutch, but I do not.

It seems the TOTJO members do use the dichotomy, if but to justify this "wholeness".

Perhaps I wonder, why there is such a reticence to decisiveness in choosing a path.

Those who chase two rabbits wont even catch one, and if you tie two birds together, though they have four wings, they cannot fly right?

Just some things to contemplate.

Two birds with four wings may not be able to fly but two love-bugs joined can. So that point really is just mute.

Eh. None of the doctrine says light or dark. We as individuals put that(or don't) on it. I know what you mean about coming here expecting a certain something based on the mythology, but I don't really feel misled or lied too. I think my biggest disappointment in that area is that we didn't have official robes, but I got over that quickly when I found out I could use them myself.

Look everyone, here's a pony eating a muffin.

I think the teachings here are a mix of many different things. I could say something that you took to be 'light' yet someone else could see the same sentence as 'dark'
Plus the oath is something we choose to take, not a teaching as such and the codes are what we choose to follow.
My opinion Master Akkarin sums it up great, we are Jedi and human

I'm only saying this because the title of this forum is calling Jestor a liar, and I feel that what I have to say cannot be any more hostile than that.

I think it's pointless to argue over doctrine, light vs dark, theology, or creeds as far as TOTJO or Jediism is concerned, because those things simply do not exist here. The only "doctrine" is a few paragraphs that can be summed up as "we believe in peace, love, happiness, tolerance" and so on, and the closest thing to theology or real doctrine is a collection of already published works by other people, found in the initiation program. That's it. That is my main argument against Jediism. How long has organized Jediism been around? Since I became aware of it in 2009 and followed it off-and-on, I have seen no progress in this department, except perhaps for some of the things Opie has done.

No Jediist has written a serious, in-depth volume for their faith. No serious, deep works of philosophy or theology. Aside from six (or to some people, three) Star Wars films, some scattered Campbell and Watts essays and books, and a few other miscellaneous works, you guys don't have crap. And then, when I suggest that the Star Wars Expanded Universe be used as a sort of Jediist myth from which we could have an ever-expanding library of philosophical and theosophical depth, you guys are like "but thats fiction lol."

You want to be taken seriously as a religion, but I have some new for you: it's gonna take more than news attention to do that. Just because you're featured in a few filler pieces on your local news doesn't mean you've earned any more legitimacy.

For the past couple years, I've been entertaining the idea of writing an actual book -200 pages or more- about the Jedi Way (or Jediism, if you prefer). I've even got some bits written that I could use for the book or at least for reference. But I have no motivation. One, very few Jediists would give a damn. Secondly, anything I or anybody else does with the word "Jedi" involved will automatically lump us in with you. So there goes any legitimacy I may have as a Jedi, at least in the eyes of the world.

Jestor's not lying. Jestor's my bud, and I know he's not a liar. He's just feeling around hopelessly in the dark, just like the rest of you.

The movies are mythology - not to be taken literally. That is one of the topmost things we learn here. They have to make things larger-than-life and extravagant in the movies, because they are movies. Reality doesn't work that way. There is no dark side, there is no light side, there is only personal actions, and no amount of selfishness is going to get you to a point where you can shoot lightning from your fingers.

What Master Jestor says is true, otherwise it would be like squeezing a square peg through a round hole. The teachings here are for us and not the other way around. They are words, and remain as such until a member give them a significance. The teachings here are as light or dark as the individual who follows them.