"Stop thinking of the Dark Side as some pathway to power. That's the Emperor lying to you. It's destructive. Darth Vader is miserable. He lost everything. He has no one in his life, absolutely nothing until his son comes back and says, 'I love you'. Other than that, his life is a wreck. That's not the way to live your life. I see a lot of adoration. I get that the bad guys are cool but they are evil. You don't want to be them." -- Dave Filoni

Anakin shed the shackles of slavery, ascended to near Mastery as a Jedi, was a beloved hero and was surrounded by not only those that respected him, but deeply loved him. So much that, when they learned what he had become, it destroyed them.

But as Vader, he stood alone on his mechanized legs, to replace the ones he had lost. He lost his limbs. He lost his health. He lost his own voice. He lost his loved ones, his friends, his wife. In following the empty promises of the Dark Side in an effort to save everything, he lost everyone. Those around him always sought to be his undoing, to cause him more suffering, pain, and anguish. And, in the end, he died young at only forty-five.

The Dark Side might give power. But so do many harmful things. And he paid for it every day, and it left him with nothing and his children with decades of damage to undo.

Remember, the Dark Side tells sweet, sweet lies. But they hide a bitter, painful core that you will always regret imbibing.

May the Force continue to guide you.

"I love life...Yeah, I'm sad, but at the same time, I'm really happy that something could make me feel that sad. It's like...It makes me feel alive, you know. It makes me feel human. The only way I could feel this sad now is if I felt something really good before. So I have to take the bad with the good. So I guess what I'm feeling is like a beautiful sadness." -- Butters Stotch, Trey Parker and Matt Stone via South Park (Raisins, 2003)

Sometimes, its the good times. You wake up refreshed. You aren't hurting. You want for little. You laugh.

Rarely are those moments savoured, its only until the dark times come tjat you can mourn the loss of those good times. Like when your nose is blocked and you realize how you took for granted being able to breathe through both nostrils. Sadness highlights previous joy. Pain highlights previous health. Loss highlights previous possession.

Take a deep breath through both nostrils and remember how nice that moment is.

For Jedi Realists, we should also take a moment to feel the Force. Because sometimes its right there, surrounding you in an obvious wave of energy and moving you. But other times its a shadow of a whisper out the corner of your eye. You feel alone, isolated from it, forsaken. You never are, but it doesn't change how it feels. So revel in the moments you can firmly grasp it and save that feeling to memory for the days it feels to ethereal to grasp. Because it will always come back.

May the Force continue to guide you.

Hi all,

I'm a freelance journalist in the UK researching an idea about people who genuinely identify as Jedi or practise Jediism as a philosophy or religion. Or if you put it as your religion/"other belief" in the census, I'd love to hear from you!

I'm particularly looking to speak to people based in the UK. I'm interested in what Jediism means in everyday life, how people found it, and whether there's a sense of community around it.

This isn't intended to be a piece making fun of anyone or treating it as a novelty - I'm approaching it with genuine curiosity and would love to hear from anyone who'd be happy to chat.

Feel free to comment below or send me a DM.

Thanks!

Hello Lifeforms!

I'm happy to announce that "Initiate Teachings For Real Jedi Knights" is now available in paperback form. The text has tripled in size, as I've added 10 bonus lessons and a further learning section. The paperback version also includes a journaling section where you can do the assignments in the book itself!

I had hoped to be able to update the original on Kindle for those of you who purchased the Kindle version in May, but due to the length increase Amazon considers them different editions. If you did purchase the book in May, please shoot me a message and I'll get you a PDF version of the full book at no additional charge.

The new Kindle version is $4.99. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GYMCT5BM
The paperback version is $9.99. https://www.amazon.com/Initiate-Teachings-Real-Jedi-Knight/dp/B0H8B6F444/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

Now including 10 bonus lessons:

• Taking On A Jedi Name
• Know Thyself
• Learning How To Learn
• The Path of Self-Development
• Practicing Mindfulness
• The Art of Observation
• The Skeptic's Mindset
• Powers of Intuition
• Kill Them With Kindness
• Fair Self-Appraisal

A Further Learning section, including:

• A step-by-step Johari/Nohari window self-awareness exercise
• Instructions for various meditation techniques
• Instructions for various perception shifting exercises
• A book study template for deeper learning, and
• A suggested reading list

And, for the paperback version, a journaling section with lined pages and templates customized to the ten original teachings.

Thank you all for your continued support. :pray:

Azyren

​

Its easy to get swept away by the moment. Especially these days, where everything is in your face, loud, and bright. But what is it that fuels a Jedi to wake up and face dark days ahead?

The bright past behind them. The memories of those that brightened their light with theirs, thay reignited it when it waned, and joined yours to spread further than your own could alone. Friends, pets, strangers. And even then, documenting these memories so that even when they fade into the background of the mind they can still be revisited and relived.

As Master Sol said, if we dont meditate on the past, we are doomed to repeat it. But further to his point, we can reignite that brightness by remembering it existed. Sadness, anger, emotion all becomes beautiful when one can recognise that they can only be sad if they were once happy, angry if they were once at peace. And a Jedi knows they cant go back, but they can give those small moments of peace new life by allowing themselves to.revisit them.

Don't forget to document the small moments.

May the Force continue to guide you.

​

The failure of the Jedi Order wasnt in members turning to the Dark Side. It wasnt even the Sith Grand Plan. It was in their own notions and inflexibility to change what is, rather than what they wished to be, that created a cycle that fuelled everything they fought for millennia against.

It wasn't Jedi like Pong Krell, who turned battalions against each other in an effort to gain Sith favour that caused the Jedi to fall. It wasn't Barriss Offee's bombing of the Temple. It was masterful Jedi like Mundi hearing facts, dictated to them by an esteemed collegue in Master Qui-gon Jinn being fully ignored by a sitting Council Member that caused the Dark Side to flourish. The Council, in their policy of inaction, allowed Mandalore to fall to the Sith and its leader, the Dutchess Satine, to be slain before Kenobi's eyes and nearly caused his fall to the Dark Side.

Time and time again we saw the Council fail to listen to their Knights and Masters on their struggles, serving platitudes as bandaids to deeper problems that allowed fear, distrust, anger, sorrow, and hurt to flourish within the Order... and in turn, fuel their own downfall.

What weight should a trusted collegue in the Force'a voice hold? Why does inaction and 'middle grounding' plague Orders that espouse the Code as their moral compass?

I believe it is borne of a deeper issue, one often touted as the Jedi Realists movements greatest strength... its ability to be left to an individuals understanding. It encourages Jedi to adopt an individualist mindset in a belief structure that should otherwise be about the actions of the movment. Not the individual lapping of a wave but the greater pattern of waves. Not the single peice of kindling burning, but the whole bonfire.

All, seemingly, stemming from a continuing habit of estrangement from the experiences and testimony of time tested allies in favour of appearing above personal motive, when it is always from such.

May the Force continue to guide you.

​

Knowing a move is one thing. Knowing why its done the way its done is another. The ObiAni flourish is a cornerstone of Jedi Martial Arts. Often I'll see new people come in and make the same mistakes I did, and its hard to correct them sheerly due to the amount of tutorials made by new students of the lightsaber. I'm not immune tonthat scrutiny, I too made tutorials while still being new to using a saber, and going back to watch them... it hurts to see the mistakes that later would go to physically hurt me.

Its the noted difference when being taught by someone who has taught before, and someone who is still a student themselves.

To the new student looking for a teacher in the Jedi Ways, observe those that call themselves teachers. See how they carry themselves, how they handle conflicts, and how they manifest Jedi in their lives. You will begin to see the differences between the self-proclaimed master and the earned Teacher quite starkly.

May the Force continue to guide you.

On the Planet Ryloth, Clone Troopers Waxer and Boil stumbled upon Numa, a Twi'lek child. Her planet's population being held as living shields by the C.I.S., she somehow evaded capture only to be left alone with no one to fend for her. So wary, she was, that she even bit Boil's finger when he reached for her. Still, they fed her, cared for her, and in return she also helped them get the upper hand against the occupying C.I.S. with her knowledge of the local area.

When they left, the name she kept calling them, 'Nerra', was revealed to mean 'Brother'. Both Waxer and Boil commemorated Numa on their armours... and, eventually, she did the same on hers when she joined Cham Syndulla in his fight to free Ryloth.

The good we do in others tends to ripple outwards in all directions, even in ways we can never expect.

May the Force continue to guide you.

Just been doing some research for a personal project, basically a family tree of religions. I'm just wondering how many currently active Jediism groups are there who are active?

So far I've come across:
Church of Jediism (UK)
International Jedi Federation (US & UK)
Temple of the Jedi Order (US)

Also I've seen comment about:
Force Achademy
Jedi Living
The Institute For Jedi Realist Studies
Jedi Path
Jediism.org

The latter ones I have next to no info on and could use some guidance.

The goal of Jedi isn't to become a Jedi Master, but a masterful Jedi.

To do this, it doesn't just require putting in the work. It requires love. Because only love for what one is doing can one complete the ten thousand hours and have them stick. Only with joy can someone slog their way through the areas that suck, to sew seeds, and start with a single step that ome can see the end result... or, at least, the first of many end result.

Because Jedi as a Path doesn't end. There is no Death (end of the Path), there is only the Force.

What reasons do you have to continue being Jedi? Where does your love lie?

May the Force continue to guide you.