I Am

I suppose who we are within the Temple is defined by why we are here ? What are your reasons to be here ? To be enlightened ? To make friends ?

Silas, part of the mission of the Temple is to learn to stop defining ourselves by some external motive mould. It is on one hand natural to join of community of people one thinks is "like-minded" seeking some sort of growth, but then what happens is that two or more "like-minds" start competing for the same external resources. Just like a field of the same plants or a forest of all the same sort of tree will compete for the nutrients in the soil and sunlight. Some starve others ... I certainly hope that this is not what our Temple is about.

No, I am not here for "definitions" and encourage others to abandon that quest also. It is the prime ingredient of existential mayhem to need to be "defined" (thus limited) to some vicariously selected conceptual models. It is Sartre's "Nausea" from spoonful to bucket ...

One cannot find Enlightenment by going into any Temple, be it a Shinto one, a Buddhist one or a Jedi one. Enlightenment comes with understanding that it can't be pursued nor possessed ; one cannot store 'light' in a jar ~ much less even in a book or in an elegant discourse. To find what one needs, one need only stop - right where one is now - and look inside oneself. 'Tis there that one finds everything that one is inculcated to think is "out there."

Making friends is also something that happens on its own : we are drawn to some people, and they us, and others tend to repel us. And there is a whole spectrum in-between. The beauty of the TotJO is that we interact with a good mixture of the whole continuum of it. "(I shall never seek so much) ... To be understood as to understand ;" means that one can get a great deal of that slippery Enlightenment from those to whom we would not probably choose to listen to, from those we consider "those people" (out-group folk). Certainly we need some validation, but the major source has to be from within ourselves. Only the refining polish can come from others, be they "friends" or "those people".

Furthermore, Enlightenment comes by standing still in a bucket of boiling existential angst most of the time. We are covered under layers of the sludge of social, familial, educational and commercial conditioning so that we start out usually very mucked up indeed. Yet, we cannot just wash it off under the shower. That would kill us almost instantly. What the Temple provides therefore is a place to rub it gently, to soothe its itching, shake off the flakes ... knowing that we may never come totally squeaky clean (we are human beings, after all).

I am here because I spent 20 years as an errant knight without a home. Then one day, I wound up here. They ended up giving me a job so that I might actually earn my keep ... :whistle:

my friend, obviously Your believe in Christ shadowed your thoughts . Did You know that Jesus after his crucified and 3 days in a cave he was actually resurrected ? I hope this everybody knows here.

But did You know that after his resurrection he lived for 40 days only ? And after 40 days he died my friend, as any other man.

So if he saying the same as I did You will do too, I say thank You my lord, I am not interested, because where is the point.
And if somebody sick , he can take some penicilin or other tablet

One cannot find Enlightenment by going into any Temple, be it a Shinto one, a Buddhist one or a Jedi one.

(Not speaking to you Alex, just in general)

But, we dont know that...

Looking for "IT" (enlightenment, the answers, whatever), is tricky, like looking for your car keys...

It is always in the last place you look...

Except in this case, the answers you seek are not in the fridge, or on your dresser, but rather within yourself....

But, we have to look in the "Christianity" and the "Buddhism" and the "Jediism" to find it...

Here I am, 5 months in TOTJO, and telling folks the answer is within, lol...

And, while I was "saying it", I had not "realized it", yet... Not completely... I need more "soak time", lol...

To really look, to find this within, we have to hash this out, and the only way to do that, is to talk about it... Get mad about it, bitch about it, argue, with our 'cosmic selves' in others...

Corwinani wrote: my friend, obviously Your believe in Christ shadowed your thoughts . Did You know that Jesus after his crucified and 3 days in a cave he was actually resurrected ? I hope this everybody knows here. [sic]

First, thank you. I thought I was the only one with the impression that it sounded weird when Streen first said he did not generally agree with Christianity and then in the same breath agreed with some of its central premises (not to mention every other time he rather fondly spoke of biblical characters or events). However, I do not this know here that Jesus after his crucified was actually resurrected. There is quite a number of Muslims who would disagree with that, too. I'm pretty sure you don't know that either, but do feel free to prove me wrong.

But did You know that after his resurrection he lived for 40 days only ? And after 40 days he died my friend, as any other man.

Not according to the Bible he didn't. According to Luke 24 "He was parted from them [the disciples] and carried up into Heaven.", according to Mark 16 "He was received up into Heaven, and sat at the right hand of God.", and if we are to believe Acts 1, "He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their [the disciples'] sight.". Now I'm not the one saying the ascension happened, but you were saying the resurrection did, so...

Jestor wrote: To really look, to find this within, we have to hash this out, and the only way to do that, is to talk about it... Get mad about it, bitch about it, argue, with our 'cosmic selves' in others...

Thank you, Jestor, that is exactly how I feel. I didn't start this topic to say "this is true and that is false". I know it may have sounded that way, but sometimes I don't say what I mean or mean what I say. I'm a difficult person to communicate with, both here and offline.

Yes it is true I don't necessarily ascribe to Christianity. I believe in Christ, sure, both not the "ianity" part. I stopped going to church a long time ago, and started going back to God. In this sense I use the word "church" as to mean the building where one goes to listen to a particular pastor. The "church" I feel I belong to now is more closely defined as a people. I get my information from a variety or sources on the Bible, not just one hour a week at the chapel down the street.

That isn't to say I'm an expert on biblical knowledge, but I am no amateur. That being said, to address the topic of Christ's resurrection, I do believe he died on the cross for our sins, was risen 3 days later, and 40 days after that ascended to Heaven, a fully grown and physical/spiritual being, 100% Man and 100% God.

That might offend some of you, and you are welcome to disagree, but that is my core belief now. Any concepts of the Force and an ability to use it have transformed into a faith that all things are as they are meant to be. I don't put the power in my own hands anymore. God determines my reality, not my focus. I give it to Him, the Father, to take care of matters in my life. I am not here to express something "I" came up with, but rather to express something, I believe, God wanted me to.