My thoughts on what a Jedi is, and what their purpose is in our world

[JaxKeymaster]

(another old post, perhaps it should be linked to another thread, if so I’ll move it tomorrow)

My thoughts on what a Jedi is, and what their purpose is in our world
15 March 2008 — butchjax
While I also believe the Jedi is a sort of jack of all trades, my reasons are different.  I think most people are still looking at this from their physical perspective and missing the big picture.

The Jedi’s first goal is to become a whole person.  In the Jedi community we hear a lot about training the body.  That’s an important thing to do because the health of our body affects every other part of our self.  But it’s not enough.  We hear about training our mind, which is also important.  We can learn a lot about ourselves and others and reduce a lot of the dysfunction in our life simply through awareness of the problem, but it is also not enough.  We even hear about training our energy body, the non-physical influences on our body and mind that we address through various energy exercises, and even that isn’t enough.  Because what is most missing throughout the community, and what has been missing throughout it’s history, is the spirit.

Our spirit is the part of us that is all knowing, all loving, and eternal.  It is always connected and always aware.  It is our wisdom.  Sure, there is some talk of it from time to time.  But I have yet to see within the Jedi community people getting to the heart of the matter.  Our beliefs as humans are based upon myths of our origins, who we really are, and what we are capable of.  We have forgotten or refuse to believe that we are divine in nature, that we are always connected with something larger, whether that is called the Force, God, the Universe, or Life, it doesn’t matter.  We are always connected.  The feeling and belief that we are not is the primary cause of suffering and dysfunction in our world today, and has been for centuries.

These beliefs are why we behave the way we do.  All of our behaviors are due to beliefs we hold about all sorts of things.  We do attempt to get to some of this through personal development training.  But I have to be honest, that only scratches the surface.  As long as it remains a mental exercise instead of a soul exercise, it will only scratch the surface.  And we will always have the behavioral conflicts within our selves and the Jedi community.  Look around and you’ll see that those behaviors and beliefs are why we haven’t gone anywhere as a community, and why we won’t grow much beyond where we are.

The Jedi community, while speaking of balance, has never been balanced.  This is because the majority of the leaders do not understand the true importance of spiritual development, or were afraid to speak up and face the detractors.

I’ve spent my life working on all these various aspects of life.  I’ve trained my body physically through years in martial arts and the Marine Corps.  I learned a lot from that, and I think everyone can learn from pushing their body a bit more than they think is possible.  I’ve trained my mind constantly, not only in science but in the arts, trying to balance the parts of my brain.  Without having a strong knowledge base you’re going to limit what you can understand in life.  And I’ve trained my energy body, though not as much as I would like.  I’ve certainly seen the benefit of that as my own skills and abilities begin to show themselves.  But none of those things brought deep, lasting change in my life.  It was the spiritual development I’ve been pursuing for the past few years that accelerated my growth to levels I didn’t realize was possible.  Sure, there are techniques for everything, but it’s like putting a bandaid on a bullet wound – it only helps for a short time.  Our beliefs are usually ingrained so deeply that it takes an equally powerful tool to get to them.

I realized the other night that, while I’ve believed this for years, I had allowed the Jedi community to push these beliefs to the back of my mind as I sought to make as many people happy as I could.  In doing so I lost sight of my purpose in this community.  You see, the more you develop yourself spiritually, the more you can help others.  I’ve counseled countless people online and off.  Over the years I’ve noticed I can see the source of their discomfort more easily and find the right way to address the issue so they can start to heal themselves.  Everyone already has everything they need within them to be a whole, joyous person, but they have forgotten and need a little help seeing the tools available.

Bringing this back to the jack of all trades thing, the more you know, the more you have to draw on when you’re helping someone.  I can’t remember all the times I pulled out some seemingly random piece of information or technique to suggest to a person.  I’m sure Phoenix remembers them more than I do, since lately he’s been the recipient of the many tools in my tool belt.  But it’s because of my many varied experiences that I can help a variety of people.  Sure, I’m stumped often as well, but I know I have a long way to go. 

In the coming week or so I’m going to do my best to expand upon this spiritual development and what it is a Jedi needs to learn to begin their spiritual training.  The focus isn’t to bring them to what I know, but to bring them to their own deeper truths.  This is where wounds heal.  This is where we draw our strength and find our deepest wisdom.

Before I forget, I wanted to address what might be brought up by some, that the Jedi are not religious in the fiction.  I have two views on that.  The first is that, in a deeply spiritual culture, it’s rarely discussed as a separate thing.  Instead it is so interconnected with their belief system and life that it’s everywhere – unified just as we are unified with all of the Force.  So after centuries, there’s no reason why we would see separate spiritual discussions as a general occurrence.  Secondly, this is still fiction written by people who are not spiritually aware to the level that they could include it.  However, even without that, they certainly hit on some key concepts just through the mythology.  But you certainly don’t expect a guidebook to spirituality in a series of books spanning so many authors and time frames.  This is where I say we learn from the fiction, but realize it’s limitations.  Perhaps this is why spirituality has been the most ignored aspect of training in the Jedi community?

It seems to me as if the Jedi training has been approached from the bottom up, rather than top down.  We start with the physical, our experience and understanding of our life here in the myths of humanity and try to expand from there.  But that’s building a foundation on falsehoods, or on sand as the proverbs goes.  Instead, we have to come from our higher self, our deep wisdom, our spirit.  That’s the only way we can move beyond where we are today.

[inariParticipant]

Hi Jax,

I’ve noticed over the years that your focus has moved from the personal exploration to more of a spiritual focus. While I personally think this is good, there’s been something nagging at me for a while now and at present I do not agree that spirituality is the MOST important part of Jedi training. I think that there are two reasons for this. Firstly, I am not certain that I fully grasp how you are defining spirituality. I looked up the meaning of the word in the dictionary recently and that meaning doesn’t seem to tie well with the way that it is used by yourself and indeed many books of this day and age. I’d appreciate it if you could please define what you see spirituality as being.

I do believe that it has become the most important aspect of your personal treading of the Jedi path, but I personally believe that this does not mean that it is going to be so for everyone. You are walking the path of the mystic, the spiritual seeker, the Jedi who explores the unseen aspects of the Force, and as such this probably is the most important part for you. This is where you may point out the title of the topic, ‘My thoughts’ etc. but the way that you write and the overall focus that you’ve given this topic over several different threads gives a subtext that implies it should be of the same importance to all Jedi. I’d like to take this posting to point out to all that may read it, that it is OK if you personally have a different focus to your training studies, especially since these focal points of your training evolve over time. If you are not ready to dive headlong into spirituality, please don’t feel pressured to do so. You will come to it if and when you are ready. In the meantime, it is OK to focus on your martial training, or healing, or Force exercises or whatever aspect of the Jedi path you see as important to you. It is your path, no one treads it but yourself.

Now, I’m going to try to figure out what spirituality means in a purely Jedi way! Thanks for the thought provoking topic. It is hard to articulate thoughts and feelings on this topic, full kudos for doing so!

[Magdelene NashiraParticipant]

I don’t know if this helps, and I don’t want to put words in Jax’ mouth, so hopefully I’m not.  But the way I take it is just in the same sense as the body, mind, spirit connection.  Basically meaning that it is important to work on all these in order to strengthen the whole person.  I would also agree that the spirit is the most important because I believe that the spirit has the most capacity to strenthen the other two.  Again, that is my own thoughts and how I understand her meaning.

[JaxKeymaster]

Thanks for replying so I could remember that I meant to reply.  

Training the spirit is important because it is at the very root of being.  When we are in alignment with our spirit we find doing the right thing much easier.  We can root out our darkness and shine a light on it so we can overcome it.  We can see the connections between our beliefs and behaviors, so as we change our beliefs our behaviors are easier to change.  And when we are out of alignment with our spirit we fall further into darkness, and find life more difficult than it need be. 

But training spirituality doesn’t mean studying books, visiting different religions or spiritual traditions.  Spirituality is trained in whatever way brings you closer to who you really are.  For some that can mean training in martial arts, where they overcome their shy nature in a responsible way.  Or using it to overcome a lazy nature, or honing their body into a tool that allows them to live a full and energetic life.  It can mean studying artistic pursuits, connecting to the spirit at a different level.  For instance, I know when I’m in greater alignment because music comes more easily to me.  So while I say we need to train spirituality, it means many different things and does not require sitting down and reading books or meditating. 

So, the simplest definition of spirituality is a practice that brings you closer to alignment with who you really are, at your core.  This involves addressing false or limiting beliefs, primarily, because beliefs have the largest affect on our ability to live the life we desire.  How a person addresses these beliefs and issues really depends on their interests and their particular issues.  This is why I say that spirituality is wrapped up into everything we do, but rarely is trained at the level required.  Instead, our society links spirituality only with religion, which is normally an activity that involves 1-2 hours a week.  And for some it is ignored completely.  Realistically, how often is spirituality really brought up in the Jedi community?  I know I didn’t see a lot of it, unless it was a bit of buddhist or taoist teachings here and there, and a smattering of discussions about how a person can be a christian Jedi. 

I realize I’m still not articulating this as well as is needed, and that is on my to-do list to expand upon in the spirituality class.  But simply, no a person doesn’t have to train spirituality as I have.  But I believe it is absolutely required to address the spirit in many ways or growth will always be limited. 

[Magdelene NashiraParticipant]

Quote:

So while I say we need to train spirituality, it means many different things and does not require sitting down and reading books or meditating. 

Now there I don’t quite agree with you and am not sure why you are saying this.  To me it seems that knowledge is key to any pursuit so I don’t know why you would leave out reading or meditating.  I can see that these two aren’t the only methods, but I do see them as methods and very key methods at that.

[JaxKeymaster]

That was a bad choice of words.  I mean that while that is the most common method of learning, a person can connect to their spirit without ever having read a book.  Perhaps they just find themselves engaging in interesting discussions that make them question who they are and what they believe.  Or a person doesn’t meditate, but they engage in activity such as music or fitness which clears their mind and gets them directly connected to their soul.  It isn’t the exact actions that makes an activity spiritual, but the purpose and outcome.  Is that a little clearer?

[Magdelene NashiraParticipant]

Yeah, thanks.  That does make more sense.  That’s what I thought you were meaning, but wasn’t sure.

[AslynParticipant]

Quote:

I’ve noticed over the years that your focus has moved from the personal exploration to more of a spiritual focus. While I personally think this is good, there’s been something nagging at me for a while now and at present I do not agree that spirituality is the MOST important part of Jedi training. I think that there are two reasons for this. Firstly, I am not certain that I fully grasp how you are defining spirituality. I looked up the meaning of the word in the dictionary recently and that meaning doesn’t seem to tie well with the way that it is used by yourself and indeed many books of this day and age. I’d appreciate it if you could please define what you see spirituality as being.

I do believe that it has become the most important aspect of your personal treading of the Jedi path, but I personally believe that this does not mean that it is going to be so for everyone. You are walking the path of the mystic, the spiritual seeker, the Jedi who explores the unseen aspects of the Force, and as such this probably is the most important part for you. This is where you may point out the title of the topic, ‘My thoughts’ etc. but the way that you write and the overall focus that you’ve given this topic over several different threads gives a subtext that implies it should be of the same importance to all Jedi. I’d like to take this posting to point out to all that may read it, that it is OK if you personally have a different focus to your training studies, especially since these focal points of your training evolve over time. If you are not ready to dive headlong into spirituality, please don’t feel pressured to do so. You will come to it if and when you are ready. In the meantime, it is OK to focus on your martial training, or healing, or Force exercises or whatever aspect of the Jedi path you see as important to you. It is your path, no one treads it but yourself.

I’ll first note that Sandra and I are in complete lockstep on this one – to my mind, spirituality is something that you can explore personally, but it is not the mainstay of Jedi disciplines. Spirituality is a personal journey, and we train Jedi to serve, which is not something that a person’s spiritual beliefs arm them form. Usually, you’ll find that their beliefs reinforce their moral compass and sense of willpower, which aids them, but these are things we teach to students independently of their own spiritual beliefs, since you do have to account for those of us that aren’t particularly spiritual but are nonetheless Jedi, or training to be such.

As you’ve noted, though, in truly spiritual cultures, the two are not seen as independent – they are intertwined, such that one’s spiritual faith and the rituals stemming from them become as normal as any other part of your life, indistinct in it’s entirety. A useful thought for the future, but we’re not there yet – for the most part, we’re still trying to figure out what we are. Yes, that’s often disputed, but half the time I’m certain that most people have only half the picture, and as such don’t envision the entirety of just what we are. All well and good, though – that’s how these things come together, over time.

As for our purpose, I do have some difficulty envisioning the Jedi are a worldwide force. Yes, we exist all over the place and, yes, we all agree on many of the basic concepts behind our ideology. However, we are not, as yet, an organised group, and our disparate beliefs make it fairly evident that this is not something likely to change without some severe work, and I’m half-inclined to think that the strong measures oft required to get some organisation would result in a slow but steady degradation of the very ideals we seek to maintain. Invariably, then, when we seek a purpose, we have to do so for ourselves as individuals at this point in time – in essence, adapting our training to our own lives in such a way that it provides meaning to us as it offers others our service.

To an extent, I do think that’s the right way to go to working out our overall mandate as a growing movement. Let’s face it, our community has not yet lived even a single lifetime – barely a quarter of one yet. We haven’t really truly explored our thoughts, our beliefs, the methodologies we use and, more importantly, how these will be fully applied. For those of us that have been around for a while, we’ve spent more than half that time in training – and we’re still IN training. Make no mistake about that. We pass on what we know, certainly, but we are but students ourselves. There’s too much about our own ideology that we don’t know, and that primarily revolves around what you do with it as a whole – what our purpose is being the most difficult to discern. Knowing our intentions is one thing, but what we do with it, well, that determines our purpose.

For now, I’ll say this much: don’t try to work that out YET. Work out where you are. What are you doing with your training? How is that progressing? Are you practising regularly? Encountering any bumps in the road? And, yes, I do suggest you keep a diary on these things – I don’t, admittedly, but I don’t often go for big revelations in my training, so I rarely see the need to make notes. But you all need to discern your individual purpose as Jedi, before we take the next step and work out the larger one.

[JaxKeymaster]

I’m going to keep this simple.  Thank you both for reminding me just how much I have to accomplish in the spirituality course.  Spirituality is the very core of our beliefs – of all beliefs.  Without addressing that, everything you attempt to do will be sabotaged from within.  But I will leave it at that for now, as this is a very large topic that needs just the right explanation, which I simply can’t focus on right now due to other issues.

[Author]

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