June Session Discussion 2 Reading 1

Read:

http://templeofthejediorder.org/components/com_joomlaboard/uploaded/files/THE_BOOK_Chapter_1.pdf

and post your comments.

Br. John

I tried reading this article but found myself stuck within the first few sentences. However i tried to read on and persevere, but it just became more confusing.

The article from the outset doesn't explaining clearly what it is about and is very vague about this. It also use a number of metaphors that are confused and which the author doesn't explaining leaving me oblivious to it's meaning.

The lack of explaination has prevented me from reading it, as what is the point reading something that i cannot understand.

I found the article concerning black and white a much clearer read and much more interesting.Whereas this one has left me wondering what the article is concerned about.

I would like to formaly submit my name for registration in this course. At the promptings of Bishop Whiteman. Thank you for your time on this matter.

Justinian

I would have to agree with whiteknight, i got about 2 pages into it and started wondering where it was all going, i skipped ahead, lol. Sorry, hope you can take constructive criticism. Good luck with the book though, i hope you did get it right, i know it can be hard, i have been working on a scifi book for some time now and just keep getting writers block.

Innocence_Lost wrote:

I would have to agree with whiteknight, i got about 2 pages into it and started wondering where it was all going, i skipped ahead, lol. Sorry, hope you can take constructive criticism. Good luck with the book though, i hope you did get it right, i know it can be hard, i have been working on a scifi book for some time now and just keep getting writers block.

LOL, John is not writing this Book. This Book was written By Alan Watts the Philosopher among other things back in the 60's. If youre really having that much trouble with it then I suggest you spend more time with it. It is important. You shouldn't just skip it because it doesn't interest you. Not everything will. But it is a vital that you take in all the pieces or it would not be in the classwork. Is this an indication of your intellectual stamina? Remember, FOCUS. KNOWLEDGE. WISDOM.
and yes, they come in that Order for a reason. Good luck with your second try and MTFBWY

LMAO, OMG, i didn't even think about it as a class sesion, i opened it and just started reading without thinking of the context or purpose that i should have been reading it in. And i am sorry that i thought it was something that he was trying to get opinions on, i am so imbarrased now, lol. Okey, i will read it, it was just that Watts speaks so much as to why he was writting, it just really threw me off. Thanks for clearing me up.
MTFBWY

Honestly i am glad that you put me in my place, i read it all the way threw and it was a very good read. I do not know why i didn't earlier, maybe i was just distracted. I had trouble understanding some of it but those parts i would read again and understood better. I am not used to reading things that are so philisophically inclined (i hope that made snese, lol). Is that the name of the book? 'The Book', i would like to find out if it is at our library. I really enjoy reading books that make people question their own views on things, life, 'God' or the 'Gods', and the universe itself. Currently i am reading The metaphysics, a book with much of Aristotles writtings.
May The Force Be With You

I am Glad you took it to Heart. As Jedi we are often called to examine ourselves in order to better understand others. This is the heart of Compassion. Yes, The Book's title is \"The Book\". Depending on your Library it may or may not be hard to find but there are many used (i.e. Inexpensive) copies available online both on Ebay.com and Amazon.com. I look forward to hearing your response to the reading and readings ahead and MTFBWY

What I personally \"got\" from reading Chapter 1 of 'The Book' is, we are all part of everything else, we just don't realize it yet, because we are taught that we are we, and everything else, is everything else. Sometimes, we need to sit back, relax, and look at the world with our heart, instead of our eyes. Yes, sounds hokey, and cliche, but, too true, we like to see things with our eyes, so that we may rationalize, and use our superior 'logic' that we believe to possess over everything else. If we were to \"see\" with out heart, we may actually find the thing that we were looking for in the first place, 'God', or as put so very well in that book, our 'self', the thing that we have been looking for since the dawn of 'our' time, and not being able to find, because we didn't know that it was our very self that we have been looking for.

That's just a what I gathered from reading it, though, it, to me, is exactly what Mr. Watts was trying to get across to us, quit using rationalization, and see the world through our hearts, not our minds, to find harmony with the world instead of conquering it, is to find harmony with ourselves.

I am not always great with words, which is why i didn't write my thoughts on the chapter, but i don't think i could have put it a better way, although i don't think we should view the world intirely without our mind, information from our hearts must be processed into something that we can understand. Take how i remember and view things for example. Everything i encounter has a feeling to it, if an event happens, i remember that event threw the way it felt to me, i remember people threw the way they feel to me, but i can't remember all of these things unless i use my mind. Of course considering that the heart and mind do have some trouble communicating from time to time, i will get a feeling and won't know why, be it a person, place, event, time, etc. And sometimes if something comes up, and i need to remember something all i really need to do is 'look up' that feeling, but sometimes i can find the feeling but then not the memory that goes with it. I don't know if anyone else remembers things this way but i have for a very long time now, and i think it is slightly relevent to the chapter. We can view the world with our brains all day long and still not know exactly what is going on, we can view the world with our hearts and know what is going on but not fully understand it, but when the heart is working as the pilot and the brain the co-pilot, i believe we can get anything done.

MTFBWY

Yes, we all remember things in different fashions. From personal experience though, the heart does not lie, and the mind can play tricks on us, even lie to us sometimes. We like to rationalize things, so that they either A. do not seem as bad to us, or B. seem much worse to us than they actually are, so that we will completely avoid them in the future, even though, that may not be prudent in the course of our learning things.

All things come from personal experience, and points of view, which differ from person to person, so I would rather trust what my heart tells me, though it may get me in trouble sometimes, lol.

this is very good but i had to reread some parts over and over to get it but its good

And what did you learn from it?
Everyone currently enrolled, be sure that in your responses youre not merely saying \"yea, it was good.\" or \"I didnt like it.\" but that you are elaborating at length about what you got from the reading. This is a class and as all classes are, it does require a little work along with the reading. Keep up the work and MTFBWY

well its hard to say what i got out of this but her goes. well first my eyes where closed my hole life. like i have a role in this world. mostly i have been looking at the world with my eyes when i should of be looking at the world with my heart. and when i started to look with my heart the world looked alot different. the biggest hardes part was seeing who u are behind the mask. i got more out of it but its hard to explain it all. thank you for your time


\"the heart does not lie, and the mind can play tricks on us, even lie to us sometimes.\"
Br. Shaun FDC

Karol Fett wrote:

well its hard to say what i got out of this but her goes. well first my eyes where closed my hole life. like i have a role in this world. mostly i have been looking at the world with my eyes when i should of be looking at the world with my heart. and when i started to look with my heart the world looked alot different. the biggest hardes part was seeing who u are behind the mask. i got more out of it but its hard to explain it all. thank you for your time


\"the heart does not lie, and the mind can play tricks on us, even lie to us sometimes.\"
Br. Shaun FDC

Yes, I just learned from you. Thank you ever so much. Keep up the great work folks.

After consideration i will take another look at The Book. However if i continue to not understand it then i will post further feelings.

Whiteknight wrote:

After consideration i will take another look at The Book. However if i continue to not understand it then i will post further feelings.

Or you could ask for help? Thats why we're here my man.

Nah as soon as i wrote that post i immediatly read the boom and found it very interesting. I think the reason i couldn't get through it the first time was because i wasn't focused.

The main theme that sprung out at me from this text was the fact that things shouldn't be taken at face value. This idea of inside information, we cannot see clearly because we look at everything from the outside in.

We seem to look around our selves in the outside world to get answers for our inside. The problem is, si that this leaves people look ing from the outside in.

As a result, we look at the outside for answers. These answers come from religion. The problem is that these come from the outside so when can't get a proper understanding of the inside. some of these religions teach narrow ideas (but good morals), but these leave us narrow minded. These are such ideas as the Christian supression on education and science for most of British history.

However, those who ignored these calls from the outside, looked in to break free and and cause progress and further harmony between the outside world and self.

We must look from the inside out. This may seem like we are \"cultivating our ego's\". but in the long run we benefit from it. From learning about ourselves can we start to learn about the out side world. When this occours, the self and outside are no longer seperate but in harmony, as we appreciate both sides of things.

Considering Religion, i think The Book inadvertantly shows Jediidm as the perfect religion. Jediism teaches us to look withing our selves to gain knowledge and answers. It is also not a narrow religion but takes teaching from all religions to get a more rounded view to the world, as well as incorporating our own ideas.

Whiteknight wrote:

Nah as soon as i wrote that post i immediatly read the boom and found it very interesting. I think the reason i couldn't get through it the first time was because i wasn't focused.

The main theme that sprung out at me from this text was the fact that things shouldn't be taken at face value. This idea of inside information, we cannot see clearly because we look at everything from the outside in.

We seem to look around our selves in the outside world to get answers for our inside. The problem is, si that this leaves people look ing from the outside in.

As a result, we look at the outside for answers. These answers come from religion. The problem is that these come from the outside so when can't get a proper understanding of the inside. some of these religions teach narrow ideas (but good morals), but these leave us narrow minded. These are such ideas as the Christian supression on education and science for most of British history.

However, those who ignored these calls from the outside, looked in to break free and and cause progress and further harmony between the outside world and self.

We must look from the inside out. This may seem like we are \"cultivating our ego's\". but in the long run we benefit from it. From learning about ourselves can we start to learn about the out side world. When this occours, the self and outside are no longer seperate but in harmony, as we appreciate both sides of things.

Considering Religion, i think The Book inadvertantly shows Jediidm as the perfect religion. Jediism teaches us to look withing our selves to gain knowledge and answers. It is also not a narrow religion but takes teaching from all religions to get a more rounded view to the world, as well as incorporating our own ideas.

Now We're cooking with Gas! Awesome.

I'm just gonna jump in and read along, if that is ok? I only visit the site a few times a week, but love the things I learn here, and enjoy applying them to my life.