INPUT REQUESTED

As you may be aware, we are currently in the process of compiling a book called The Way of Jediism. This will include information such as the Doctrine, Creed, Codes, Teachings, etc as well as a history of the Order and a selection of essays and sermons.

We would also like to include your input. We are looking for reflections about Jediism, relevant essays, and personal views such as your journey to Jediism and what it means to you. We cannot guarantee that your work will be used but if it is, you will be given full credit.

The book will be published in various formats online for free as well as being sold in printed form. We hope to have an associated website up and running before the publication date, which will be sometime in September 2010.

If you have anything to contribute, please feel free to post a reply to this topic or send any relevant files/message to markanjuu@googlemail.com

Thank you in advance for your help in creating this monumental event in the history of the Temple of the Jedi Order!

MTFBWY

No matter if you've joined today or you're a Master we want personal stories of how / why you claim Jediism. Why do you feel right about it? How has it changed or helped you? Have you been praised or criticized or both? Do you find it's a misunderstood faith? [Use your imagination to add whatever questions you want answered here.]

We secured all the major domains to http://TheWayOfJediism.~~~ and they will be online soon. The First Edition of the book by the same name gets sent to the Untied States Library of Congress this September 2010.

We will either publish under your real name or your Jedi name as you request. This is your chance to make a statement and be a part of history.

This is the first book specifically about \"What is Jediism?\" The eBook is free for all and the printed book will be at a reasonable price.

We want many perspectives so the new members is as important as the old timer's.

You may post your essay here and you may want to use the Hide Boardcode if you want it kept off Google. You may email it to
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with the Subject Jediism Essay or email it to Master Mark.

We do not expect to make any profit from this book. That is not the point. If we do make any money from this book it will go for the improvement of the site and member services.

I am by far from what is normally reguarded as the usual Jedi follower. I know no other beauty therapist/hair dresser Jedi's. I must say, I am not really a Jedi of any stature either, just a meer student, padawan, apprentice. I will not fit in with any group one hundred percent but find parts of many Jedi web sites fasinating and it is for this reason why I return to them on a daily basis to read posts and interact in their forums.

But lets start where I feel i should start. Where my faith of the One God became but a memory.

Mother was terminally ill with cancer. For some reason I'd known she was going to leave me for quite some time before she became ill. I was so desperate to help her, that her nurse suggested I enrole on a Body Massage course, as massage is very good for releaving stress and pain. I almost ran to enrole on a course at the local college. I went everyday and massaged mum. Until that point in my life I was a devote chritain, but how can any merciful god allow anyone to suffer for 18 months in such pain. I cried everyday I went home from mums. The day my mummy died, part of me died along with her. I'd lost the center of my universe and I was spiralling down into a pit of never ending dispair.

Now so not to bore you for too much longer and I'll cut this short. I am a wife and mother of three girls and being a parent means you go on and do the right thing by all those who need you. But I've drank far too much gaining 4 stone since the day mum died. I buired my grief in giving what ever I could for my loved ones but consuming alchol on a daily basis. Now about a year ago I stumbled over a few Jedi sites and desided to learn more about the faith. I was helpeed by a Master called Shinobi to find a Master of my own. Who has been very pacient with me. Our lessons have gone slow but Master Aldar has always been a true gentleman. About 7 weeks ago I believe I had an apifany, directing the way which my life could go, if I didn't take control. I had always thought giving up drink would be so hard but it really wasn't as difficult as i imagend. Eating healthily just needed a small ajustment in my habits. Returnig to exercise is slightly more challenging but Zumba classes make exercise fun.

Now I have such a long way to go, to become a Jedi of honour but now my mind has calrity and balance. I have found my path and I intend to follow it.

So, one day, I was not even 10 years old, I ask my Dad, “How did God create the world in seven days? That’s a lot of work for anyone.”

Dad say’s “How long is a day, to God?”



And so began my questioning of life. And of the Bible.

And how can there only be one God? What about Allah, what about Buddha, Zeus, Ra? What about all the Greater and Lesser God’s throughout all histories and cultures?

And how about God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit? Three people, but yet all the same? Like multiple personalities?

How does someone who is saying to us, that he is our father, allow the terrible atrocities of life to go on?
To children and the old alike? Making people suffer allowing ‘Evil’ to abound?



So, one day, I figured a piece of the puzzle, Life doesn’t care about me. It doesn’t mean me any harm, but ‘life’ isn’t here to just hand me things on a silver platter either.

But then, why all the good as well? If life is cruel, we should just take what we want, right?

Well, that thought just made me feel nauseous.

I am not that way.



So my religion did not help me at all. None of the others (religions) seem to help the people I know as well. Everyone still fought with everyone. Not a lot of understanding, not a lot of tolerance.

Tired of it all, I just told people I was a lapsed Catholic. That I had different ideas about life and the Catholics and I really did differ.

So went my life, till I started, at almost 40 years of age, looking for the meaning of life.

I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if the movie Jedi were real? Not the magic, ESP stuff. Just the tolerance and caring. Understanding. I believe in the life force of the planet, but, no religion currently went along with my beliefs. So on a bored day, I was googling things to make me laugh, I typed in Jedi, ‘Jedi religion” popped up and I followed it. There I found the “Temple of the Jedi Order” (TOTJO) http://templeofthejediorder.org



Finding TOTJO was one of the luckiest, and scariest things I ever had happen. I feel very welcomed and accepted. People don’t laugh at me, (that’s a problem when I am telling jokes….)

The understanding and acceptance I was looking for was found. I feel better in my physical existence than I thought I ever could. I still work at being a good person, but it is so much easier when surrounded by like minded people. I receive the confidence and knowledge, I feel I have been looking for.

Please feel free to edit to fit, or what you might need.

Jestor

In a way, I don't completely fit anywhere else, in another way I found the training and philosophy to be in line with what I was searching to find for so many years.

I came here a bit troubled, trying to move on with my life, to find a focus that would help me out of the place I was in spiritually and mentally. I found the studies to give words to things I could not explain to others and reinforce and expand my own views.

I'd come from many belief systems, stayed on communes with people who believed in fairies, and another where they believed they were decedents of Jesus's Wife (they had another name for him, but it was mostly the same story and time period). I'd gone to Discordianism because the chaos around me had started to be the only constant in my life, and then on to Daoism because it made so much sense to me and The Dao is the closest explanation of the force or god that fit into my beliefs, the change from Daoism to Jediism was almost seamless, but expanded my perspective more and it was like I was a rock falling erratically down a hill until I hit a trench that gave me direction and allowed me to explore myself, different belief systems, and didn't look down on me. Which was a new thing to me, Now that I've become a teaching knight, I've continued to grow in all ways, working to find good lessons for my apprentices, and to help in all ways to give back in ways that I can.

I've been allot better since finding the Temple, and am glad to be a part of this community

for me the journey as a jedi began some 21 years ago, but the journey for answers began 26 years ago. i haven't always been the nice, considerate, self sacrificing person i am today. i was once a very disturbed child. killing animals simply for amusement, starting with small ones, and gradually moving up the scale. it was one of these animals that was the catalyst for my change to begin.

i began searching for an answer to what i had experienced, and found nothing but hypocrisy everywhere i turned. after a while i found someone that was able to give me some of the answers and teach me how to find the rest. an old saying comes to mind here:\"when the pupil is ready the master will appear\". i trained with him for 3 years before being knighted by him, afterwards he told me to pass on what i've learned.

after being on my own for quite a while, i was doing homework when i had the urge to look up at the tv and just happened to catch the news story of a jedi being thrown out of a grocery store. this of course piqued my interest so i set my homework aside and looked it up, eventually finding my way to temple of the jedi order (totjo). i've been here ever since.

having experienced both sides of human nature i have a good understanding of just how far one can fall, but i also know how much strength can be gained by climbing back up. one cannot hope to help others control their darkness if they cannot control their own darkness to begin with.

What is Jediism? There are a lot of answers depending on who you ask.
For a more Objective and definitive answer I would look at the Front Page of Temple of the Jedi Order, perhaps take a look at the Jediism wiki page maintained by Ren and other Leaders in Jediism's community. What it is to me specifically maybe more interesting to write about.

Nearing Two and half years ago, I was playing “Star Wars: the Old Republic” games on my X-Box.
I beat the game, bought the sequel and played through it too. I wanted to find a site on-line that could facilitate my desire to play in this kind of fictional universe. I actually ran across the old “Jediism Way” website and found links to other Jediism and Jedi Realist sites. I came to discover possibly something more fulfilling for me was in this Mythos inspired Community than pretending to be a some character elsewhere. That is pretty much how it began for me.

Jediism for me has been a base or springboard for metaphysical exploration, philosophical acquaintance, and self awareness. The Mythic Figure of the Jedi is an ideal to aspire to and inspires me.
I want to understand deeply as these Figures do on my relationship to things bigger than myself.
I want to be capable in what I do like these figures. When reading concepts like The Jedi Code, it reinforces my beliefs that Serenity and Harmony are possible if I cultivate them.

Studying as a Jedi gave me purpose into discovering metaphysical concepts for myself.
I could have done this without Jediism, logically, but I have to ask would I have felt the need to start Googling up definitions and checking out Books on the subjects without it? Honestly, I doubt it.
I won't bore you with my personal beliefs on Metaphysics, or try to claim what Jediism believes regarding the concepts, but I will assert that some material and purpose is within Jediism to seek out what is there for yourself and how it pertains to you.

There is a strong emphasis on the Intellect, rationality, and the Walking Mind within Jediism.
Objectiveness, logic, a calm composure I have felt are Hallmark virtues in Jediism.
I am not a College Professor or even a College Student, but Jediism inspired me to acquaint myself with different Philosophies and concepts. I doubt I would wake up one day and read Kant, skim the Encyclopedia on the subjects and types of philosophic schools, buy Nietzsche books, and download relative Podcast on my iPhone, with the enthusiasm I did without Jediism's influence. It certainly helped add fuel to a spark of interest, and a reason to why spending time and effort on research of these topics in my leisure time was worth it.

The individuals I see most attracted to the Path are the ones that I can relate with the most...
men and women in their Twenties looking for themselves within the “Who am I?” phase.
There are younger members that mostly come and go and some older members that typically are more well situated and stable (certainly helpful to have around). I truly feel the idea of Jediism appeals strongly to the “younger adult” demographic. Jediism serves as a safer place to compare our internal selves with the rest of the world. Jediism facilitates an individual to ask how certain things make them feel, particularly on “right” and “wrong” or what is and what “should be”. I think this is a good place to start because there is an active exploration of reality and how it is relative to ourselves. At this starting point perception can be addressed and application can be introduced. A simple enough example within the last sentence, the ability to understand perception opens the application of diplomacy.

Jediism has helped facilitate growth in myself. I think the Path can influence the individual to desire a change, as anything we chose to take on. I feel more aware of myself and the World around me. My intellectual understanding has increased. If you chose to live this Path rather than just study it, I know the application will change how you make choices, for better or worse. It is a change in values and an overall change in lifestyle. From personal experience, such transformations within will be noticeable towards those that you know and love. I have personally been told I changed. My priorities changed and my actions changed. Be aware that acceptance or rejection is possible, take ownership and responsibility for this as it is a very possible consequence of living up to the concept of being a Jedi.
For myself, and from friends and acquaintances I have met, it is these moments that show us if The Jedi Path is what we really want. It may or may not.

These are some experiences of what this Path offers. The biggest one I have experienced is exploration.
Personal Growth has certainly been a consequence of my expanding awareness. If you aspire to be a Jedi or whatever nomenclature used in The Force Realist Community, I sincerely hope you may find some exploration, awareness, and growth while you are here. I know I have.


Ashton
V.D.A.
(EzeKio/Temporus)

First off, I am very new to the order, and nearly as new to Jedi Realism. after just a few short weeks I've come to embrace the living force of creation more and more.
It's funny, I'm very new to all this, but still much of what I'm learning now are things I feel like I have always believed in somehow. It's like there are the things you believe in because you believe them, the things you believe because you've been convinced/coersed to believe, and the things you believe because there what you want to believe like in your \"Ideal world\". Of course in these things the word religion is beaten to death. At the age I started forming my own ideas, and began relying less and less on what my parents thought, I started to look at religion in a new light. Religion, to me, is what we adhere to. I know a guy who touches doorknobs 3 times before turning them \"religiously\". This is not to say that he has a \"Bible\" entitled \"Knobs\", nor does it mean that he have faith that if he does this action his whole life, that he is going to have some \"golden ticket\" to an afterlife of glorious and pleasent things. It simply means that he is religous/committed to his obsessive behavior with a doorknob. To have religion, with these things under consideration, where do we start? I began with what was obvious to me at 15, Christianity. It was so readily available and widely accepted, at that time it seemed right. I didn't have to worry about being laughed at or outcasted, and I could have that outlet for my deep rooted spiritual nature. As inviting as it was, it didn't take long before I discovered that is was more like a club; An exclusive club, where anyone that didn't adhere to outragious expectations, and accept that just by living life, you were going against God. Oh yeah that's right; as long as you lick the toes of another human that lived thousands of years a go that you've never met, then your forgiven for basicly living life, because that guy WAS god and he died to forgive you for picking your nose or whatever. Man!!! I just wanted to come to church every week; maybe become \"religious\" about doing what I can to be who I want to be. Not feel guilty about everything I do, or hate on gay people...Forget this. This was the case with a few other alternatives that I looked into as well. Still others that I didn't have THOSE issues with, portrayed life and the universe in such a nonshalant, meaningless, depressing way. It got to where I was like \"Why don't I just make something up myself?, It wouldn't be that ridiculous.\" I started with the importance of all life being sacred, because an unseen force of nature binds us all. The snowball continued to roll down the hill picking up the way in which I feel I should conduct myself, what is reality?, is there a god?, etc. By the end of the day, it hit me while I was watching \"Attack of the Clones\", I proclaimed, \"That's it!, that's about the size of it!\". When I started thinking about it more and more, The reality of it became more real for me. I sat down and watched all the movies over again. This time it was different though. I was watching a fiction and seeing where fiction and non-fiction seperated in it; much like if you were to sit down and watch \"The Mummy\", and note to yourself, \"well, I've never seen a mummy do THAT, but I have seen a mummy in the museum, so I know they exsist\". Maybe it's a bad analogy, but who knows. Before I knew it I was sifting through the Jedi websites. It wasn't hard to believe how much there is out there, as well as all the garbage out there too; It's the world we live in. It didn't take too long to find a place of ideas I felt I subscribed to enough to join the community. TOTJO (Temple of the Jedi Order), is for me, a peacefull place with doors and windows open through which the air and the force may pass freely, never becoming stagnent. A place where the open-minded pass through the corridors sharing with one another what each of us has to offer, as well as simple plain old pleasent conversation and good will. To anyone considering the path of the Jedi in whatever form, it may be for you as it is for me, it may not. I simply say give it a chance. Either way, I pray that the will of the force be with you.

Oops. There's a few things in there I missed when I re-read it again. No big. If you intend to use it, I'll worry about crossing that bridge when we get there.

I'm bumping this topic in case new members missed it. We're hoping to have the book published soon so any personal insights are welcome!