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Jax
Phoenix and I were talking tonight about things tonight and we came up on the idea of teaching students the history of the Jedi movement. Rather than a bunch of dates and sites, however, I want to see something more interesting (and useful). I’m inviting everyone who wishes to participate to share their personal perspective of the history of the Jedi movement. Where did you start? What did you see happen? What have you seen that works? What has helped the community grow? What has been detrimental to the community? What would you tell the future Jedi about the lessons learned from our past? Speak about whatever you feel is relevant, with a few simple rules.
1. This is not a place to complain. Remain objective. Remember that this is something that will be read hopefully for many years. If this were the only thing a future Jedi read by you, would you be happy with what you wrote?
2. No personal attacks.
3. Don’t forget the positive. It’s easy to see what went wrong, but what went right?
4. Try to provide solutions for the areas you see needing improvement. If you don’t have them, that’s ok. But I offer the challenge anyway.
Share your posts here, but I will also create an area in the library for history. We may ask to use them in other ways (but only with permission).
Anonymous
I had my little Jedi History project starting in 2007 at JediOrg.
In this I was primarily concerned about writings dissappearing from view on sites that were archives/abandoned/free-floating.
Xhaiden took on some of the writings at one of his sites (not sure if that is yet up) but there are some really wonderful messages and ideas out there. For a long time – I pretty much spent my time in the “stacks” of the Jedi Online Sites – and met a lot of out-of-the-way Jedi and received valuable impromptu training.
In early 2007 we had to take an intense class about Jedi History (the hardest class I ever took here) to learn the names of the earlier Jedi, etc. It interested me quite a bit and so I enjoyed it.
The history of the Jedi – the changes – have been interesting and tell a story of their own! I hope others become interested.
I think a list of the really good old archived sites might be of interest to some as well… Just to view and browse through – much like the stacks at the library.
I wonder if that information is archived somewhere. I occasionally look at old sites and am finding more and more are completely disappearing. There’s a link in the intro part of the forum which includes most of the old sites. I haven’t gone through it to see how much is still there though. At this point I don’t have time to look either. lol I know there have been archives, just lost track of them.
On the plus side, Xhaiden’s library still exists here and I think someplace else. So many old writings are here, just not personal perspectives of the history of the path itself. What happened when, where, etc. Definitely valuable information that gets harder to remember with each passing year. :yoda
Be aware that this is told from my perspective.
For me the following verses describe a point where community broke into (grey) jedi and jedi realism. Some but continued on the path of light jedi, aspiring to follow the jedi code and never realized the impact of what Arias, Relan, some others and me were discussing. Seems the light point of view has merged with jedi realism.
Once upon a time at theJEDI.org…
We discussed the Jedi Codes, the Force.
We saw there being no Light Side or Dark Side.
We considered that all emotions are to be embraced and cultivated.
We looked upon the Jedi Code and saw how it was bad.We concluded that we can not follow the path of fictional jedi, the path of the light jedi, because it is unrealistic.
We considered ourselves truly as Grey Jedi since it was closer to reality with it’s concept about the Force and the jedi way.
We decided but against encouraging the creation of rainbow-color jedi paths. If it is jedi way then let it be known as simply jedi.We saw an idea of yet another separate label of jedi, jedi realism. Few spoke for it, few spoke against it. It simply remained and some not understanding why yet another label of jedi, left us for good.
Well that’s it, I was in the camp of the Grey jedi=simply jedi. The community lost few good members after all their attempts to remove all suffixes and prefixes from the word jedi. A lesson from this is that, don’t get too attached to your work or you give up what really matters for something trivial.
RiddleNox
Excuse the way I say this… but, I simply believe that it all began VERY engrained in the Mythos of the fiction back at theJEDI.org and Sithism.com and wayyy back when this all REALLY started in the late 90s… but, slowly but surely, all the bull sh*t has been scraped off. Of course, we still have it! We still have the issue of Fiction vs Nonfiction. But… haha, it’s gotten much more manageable. And, I don’t think a lot of people like that. They want to see more Star Wars in a Jedi website. I dunno if that’s gonna happen anymore. I am starting to accept this Star Warsless philosophy.. but, just remember why we all joined this website in the first place. It WAS Lucas that brought us here. Do NOT try and deny that. Without Star Wars, this website might now exist. We would find another way to express ourselves. We might be members of philosophy or psionics websites, or we might be part of a Joseph Campbell website. But, without Star Wars, there IS no Jedi Path. There is no Force. Obviously, it’s still there whether we believe in it or not or call it by another name. But, without the label, what do you call the “force that binds the galaxy together”? To be honest, the name of the Force itself is ACTIVE. It’s different than the Source, or the Earth, or God or anything else… It’s a FORCE. It’s physically active in forcing things together. A divine gravity that doesn’t pull too hard. That’s the genius of our way. We have to be active in body, spirit, mind and everything else. Otherwise, it’s just another path. What makes us stick out? Why do we put so much effort into following THIS way? Well, we’re interested in the subject of the FORCE. I don’t understand why everybody else keeps coming up with comparisons to the Tao and applying other practices as REPLACEMENTS for what we want to learn. Obviously, if we don’t want to be just another religion/philosophy, there has to be a point. Right now, the point is becoming less and less blunt and more hidden. Personally? I want to know what that point is and proselytize it to the world. I want to share a glorious message and help people to know what I know. If we come up with a truth and never share it, then what’s the point. I’m 18 and I’m tired… I don’t understand what we’re chasing if it isn’t to find the facts IN the myth, not from the myth. If you want to completely eliminate Star Wars from the picture, then don’t call yourself a Jedi and go somewhere else and start your own site.
Obviously, I train at Ashla Knights as well as here. I don’t think I am training to be a Jedi there, but it is part of my Jedi training. So, go create a supplement if you want. Go find your Grey Jedi. I want to stick here and learn about Jedi Realism. And, to me, it’s just what it says. If a Jedi were to train and LIVE in our world as a REALLLLL person, what would he study and how would he lead. I think the major difference in the Star Wars world from ours is this: In the Star Wars world… there is only ONE Force. Everybody believes in it because it is real and has results. If you could move a rock, that was the Force. In our world, we have that too.
There are monks who can levitate and do spectacular things. I don’t understand why people won’t accept that. I don’t get why we have to segregate from the Jedi Code. If you don’t like it… then don’t be a Jedi. It is the defining of what the philosophy of a Jedi is. No ifs ands or butts! That’s like saying: I don’t believe in the Gospel, but I still want to be a Christian. let me make my own rules from another religion… No. Maybe I am young and naive… but I miss the early days when the Mythos was the focus.
I dunno. Just my food for thought.Setanaoko
I began at Force Academy on 14 April 2002. The forum was built around esoteric practices. At that time, it was beginning to delve more into other theological studies, such as philosophy rather than such things as the astral or energy work. After I got back from Iraq, I began moving about the community (late 2007). As I moved about, I found some orders which were still very tied to the esoteric and spiritual, and others which sought out the more practical side of being a Jedi. As time moves forward, I have come to see the community moving more towards a balance of these two aspects of the Jedi path.
Although it may not look like it now, the Jedi Community is indeed learning as we are brought up together. It’s the advantage of having people move about the community and bringing new insights into each order from the previous order they were in. Or sharing amongst the community what is happening in other orders so we can all learn from one another. While each order grows up separately, there isn’t one that has grown up without the aide of another order. This is perhaps, the most beautiful aspect of having such a small group to build off of, until we can solidify a base for those who wish to move their chapters offline.
Yoshio
Years ago – must have been around 2000/2001 – I have heard on a local radio station about the real life Jedi and the on-line community. So I started to search and found my first information on the “The Jedi Creed”. I read through all texts there and started to think about their content. But after that it took two or three years before I became a member of the on line community.
I started my active path at “The Jedi”. This was sometime around 2002. I had some good learning experiences their. But also had to see how the stuff member got divided on things I don’t know and can’t remember anymore. A few people tried to make a new start and I stayed quite long at the academy. But after a while the faculty was shut down and I followed some others to the JRA-Side/-Forum.
At the JRA (Jedi Realist Academy) I found the same principle of studying about Jedi “stuff” then I found at the “The Jedi” faculty. Once again I enjoyed studying in or better said with a group of people with the same interest, striving for knowledge. Unfortunately the board got quiet after a couple of years. As far as I can say, their was no noticeable reason. It was more like that more and more people faded away and with the disappearance of Master Luna the board was dead. Now even the link to the board is not anylonger working.
Around this time Master Jax invited everyone at JRA to come over to this board here. At that time the board wasn’t yet called IJRS, but the people had been already merely the same as they are now.
When I joined this board, which was around October 2007, there was also the group study principle for different lectures as I got it to know from “The Jedi” and JRA. I found it very enjoyable and interesting. But quickly it was foreseeable that this isn’t going to work out for long. The first course I did, we had been quite a lot of people doing it together. But with every further course people attending got less and less up to to the point where I did them, literally, alone. I guess, that was the reason for the switch to the self paced study approach we can find now. At that time I got a bit inactive in the on-line community for different reasons. But finally I found my way back and I’m now again more active since the last two years.
Beside this – the switch from “The Jedi” to JRA – I was wandering the internet for learning material according to the Jedi Path. This also brought me to the FA side. I registered there and posted a couple of posts. But before I could start my studies there, they run into some technical problems which resulted in that the board wasn’t reachable for some time and kept it difficult afterwards. This actually kept me from getting into studying at this side. At the end I lost in a way interest on this side, mainly as it wasn’t too organiced. At least that was my opinion and you had to make a decision for a group if you wanted to get started with studies. They had or even still have there the Light, the Shadow and the Dark Jedi. But I personally don’t like the idea of separating people from each other as the core teachings will, in my opinion, be always the same.
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