What does "authenticity" mean to you?

And now I'm going to ramble... LOL

I'm glad you asked these questions, Kyrin, because they are becoming the foundation of what I believe I can offer as a mentor to others and as an example of what I believe a Jedi should be. In the role of the clergy, this would be my mission/ministry, if you will.

As we grow older, particularly into adolescence, we tend to develop this sense of immortality, or more accurately, that we are indestructible. We move into our twenties ready to take on the world, often naive and without consideration of how our actions might effect our futures, We drink, smoke, and fornicate as if the only important goal is our current pleasure. Then comes our thirties when we come into our own and truly "become" the people who will impact the world in our own special way. This is when I discovered the Jedi Way and decided it was another way to show the world how awesome I am as a human. This progression is driven by societal pressures to succeed both professionally and financially while also appearing to be "woke" spiritually. Our priorities are often determined by what will result in the greatest material reward or the greatest stroke to our ego. We want to be liked and respected.

I certainly followed this path, and I did so with unabashed enthusiasm. And then I was told I have a disease that could end my life in a matter of months if left untreated, and could still end my life in just a few years even with the best of medical science at my disposal. My path took a fast and hard turn into the unknown and incredibly frightening. I was forced to reevaluate my life. I was also forced to reevaluate what being "Jedi" really meant to me. What I have discovered in the past fifteen months is partly obvious and partly profound.

The obvious part would be that you can't take your stuff with you. That new car might be fun and be a great status symbol, but it doesn't really do any more than get you from point A to point B, something that any beater car could also easily accomplish. The big house with extra rooms you never use isn't necessary to be comfortable. The fancy watch doesn't tell time any better than the clock on my phone. I've learned that it isn't the possession that is important, but what feelings those possessions evoke. If it doesn't bring me joy or contribute to my ultimate survival, it isn't something I need any longer. I can let it go. This includes relationships with people. This has become my interpretation of the idea of attachment. Make the things and people that bring you bliss your priority. Everything else is just fluff that we collect along the way, and the status that comes with it is meaningless.

The more profound lesson in all of this has been rediscovering the importance of being open, honest, and genuine in my interactions with others. When we are born, we aren't concerned with how others perceive us. We cry out to our mothers for food and comfort as infants. We pee when we need to pee, even in our own pants. We say and do "inappropriate" things as toddlers. Somewhere along the line, though, we are taught to act in a way that is acceptable to society, even to our own detriment or discomfort. Women have to wear tops at the beach and men aren't supposed to cry. As you say, it is fear of rejection and peer pressure to conform with the rest of the tribe that drives our behaviors.

Well, when you have doctors suddenly putting fingers and scopes in places that used to be off limits to strangers, you start to realize how trivial and stupid some of this stuff is. I learned that hiding the symptoms of my disease out of embarrassment or shame ultimately allowed my cancer to grow and spread. Hiding my discomfort or pain from the nurses after surgery while trying to be brave and manly just prolonged the pain and let it get worse when it could be easily alleviated. Denying the serious nature of my disease makes it harder to emotionally and financially prepare for the possible negative outcome. I've had to face these realities head on and learn to allow myself to have a genuine and honest reaction to my circumstances in front of other people. I can now say without embarrassment or shame that I have cancer and it might kill me. Chemotherapy treatments make me constipated and nauseated. I have wrinkly old man skin on my hands and I can't run up a flight of stairs without being completely gassed. This is who I am now, and no amount of denial or hiding is going to change that. Essentially, I've rediscovered the freedom of being a toddler again!

Ultimately, this has given me a new understanding of what it is to be Jedi. I understand the importance of allowing myself to be emotional or vulnerable when that is how I really feel. I've also learned that being "Jedi" isn't about the titles or positions or offices one collects, but about actually being the person that represents my understanding of the ideas put forth in our Doctrine and other philosophy I deem worth incorporating into my Path. I don't have the fear of failure or ridicule that I once did. What could anyone say or think of me that is worse than hearing that my own body is trying to kill me? This is MY PATH, not anyone else's, and I have to move forward according to my circumstances and opportunities. When I die, hopefully later rather than sooner, nobody will care that I was a Security Officer here or that my car was always shiny and new. I hope instead that they will remember me as a genuine and honest person who always tried to have authentic interactions. Even when I'm being a dick, I hope people know that it is because being a dick is what I need to be at the moment. I'll apologize later for being hurtful, but not for being the real me at that moment.

It surprises some people when I say this, but cancer has been the greatest teacher so far in my life. We will all have to face our own mortality some day, but I have now had the benefit of addressing it at a point in my life when I still have time to make changes and try to be a better version of myself with the time I have left. I battle this disease every day because I have new purpose for my life. Things have meaning now that they didn't before. There are no more regrets or fears that can't be addressed from this new perspective, and I am much more at peace because of this. Should I beat this disease, I hope I never forget the lessons it has taught me.

Ive used the word "authenticity" quite a few times in my posting here and ive felt a sense of responsibility to reply to this topic since it was submitted. Every time ive begun to reply i have stopped because there are areas where it just gets difficult for me to explain exactly what i mean. Or i see that the words that i use make sense, but the exact same words could be used to convey an idea that is actually quite different from the meaning that i want to convey. So i have been silent so far, but every new post is like a dig in my mind telling me to step up and explain what i keep talking about. So, im not sure how clear this will be lol, but im just going to go ahead and do my best and hopefully it will be ok lol.

Authenticity is a process of self observation and evaluation, and an ongoing commitment to honesty and responsibility for admiting and living up to our personal realities. We are being inauthentic when (this may not be the perfect way to say it but its the way that comes to my mind) we project or hide behind a persona that is.... too far removed from our authentic feelings and judgments (how to determine "too far"..eeh, ask me later lol) Or when we cling to behaviors that its time to outgrow. When we refuse to take responsibility for what we know or feel or want, or what we know we should be doing.
I make a distinction between personality and persona: a persona is an affectation which is used as a substitute for a genuine personality. A persona is an act that is actually contrary or inconsistent with the real personality. Often we use personas because we just dont know ourselves yet. Often agan its the result of fear of some kind. Pretending to understand something we dont understand because we dont want to look dumb is a moment of inauthenticity. The kid who "goes along with the crowd". The one who knows better but does it anyway because s/he wants to fit in? Thats inauthenticity. The person who makes a big show of how so very different and unique they are is also being inauthentic. The person who refuses to take responsibility for growing up is being inauthentic. The person who tells you what you want to hear because they dont have the internal fortitude to be honest is being inauthentic.

Authentic means being honest with ourselves and being responsible for acting on the insights gleaned as a result of that self honesty. The relational component, authenticity in dealing with others, is basically being honest about what we think and how we react to other peoples words and behavior. Which is another area where it gets tricky because on the one hand, a truly authentic and responsible person will takenownership of the effect their words have on others and how they deliver their messages but will still be seen as something o an asshole by someone at some point. Its inevitable. Bit its also very easy for the genuine asshole to hide (from themselves and others) behind the guise of authenticity. "Brutal honesty" often being more about the brutality than the honesty. So i want to be clear that im not talking about tact or tasteful discretion: im talking about stubborn avoidance of truth or reality or respnsibility.

And of course all these things can be conceptualized in ways that dont use the word "authenticity"..which is another of the reasons i have started this post about five times over the last week or so and am only finsihing it now. And i dont feel its really compete but its what ive got, lol.

I love this discussion honestly . The next few statements are tword the modern day Jedist and to those who believe and make the active and try to apply the common core beliefs to a real life practice.
The human potential... the ability to say we are individuals ... the inherit worth of all... this belief creates “authentic” individuals or as we find - equally difrent individuals. Personally - I don’t think The Jedi practice isn’t so much as finding these individuals And the definitions ... (not in my practice ///actually , it may be difrent for others- give it a few seconds and it will be obvious) but —- and this is the big but in our faith I find - can we be with the rest of the world. ? Can we be us ... our own authentic self as others be their own authentic self? Can we support / not us / but some other authentic sentient being? Or does it make our existence - the others or the acknowledgement of others “ not “ like us and even not willing to harmonize with us —- make others not receive the freedoms our faith and or practice or idea or philosophy or what ever we call our Jedist path is ? Not sure if that question was clear or not. I find the hardest part of my own faith as a Jedist is to allow - not me - or not my ideas the freedoms my own ideas and practice gets. Authenticity - can we actually let it be outside our own definition?

I see no difference between authentic and genuine. After thinking on that for a minute, I looked up authentic and it actually means genuine. So, any distance one puts between the two terms is their own.