how jedi are you? :: by lawrie malen
This reminded me of the results of the 2001 census here in the UK where, I believe, 10000 people put their religious affiliation as Jedi in the hope of getting it recognised as a official religion!:-))))
However, there is a serious point to be made here (whilst trying to control my snickering), why is it that people like to 'create' new religions? They reject the old structures for a number of different reasons - perhaps they have serious reservations about the fundamental teachings of their original beliefs, or the interpretation of the original dogma, or the way that their particular clergy behave, or they see an opportunity to make money out of insecure and credulous people. Or perhaps it's a combination of all these things - I don't know.
The one similarity that this has is that people turn from one set of rules and one structure to another, different, set of rules or structures - no matter what they believe they are clinging to structure/rules.
This is the main reason that I find Taoism so satisfying - there are no rules, there is no official structure that I have to conform to. Before I came to Taoism, I looked at a number of different paths including modern paganism, but everywhere I looked, I found rules that inhibited, ideas that clung to the visible structure of the world.
So here I am - Taoist and happy/relaxed. More at peace with myself than I have ever been. And definitely up for some growing old disgracefully fun!
Tag Taoism Jedi
3 comments:
I think the chief problem is that so many people are afraid of life itself. Let's face it, life can be brutish and unfair. You can be a saintly person and a piano can fall out of a window and crush you. You can be a nasty human being and yet live to 105.
Because of the apparent capriciousness of life, a great majority of our fellow homo sapiens want to find some manner of rigid guidelines which they HOPE will make sense out of all this seemingly senseless existence. They use these rules and dogma as a shield to try to keep the randomness of life at bay.
Unfortunately, the rules and dogma don't help the situation as much as people hoped they would. So, rather than chuck them all out the nearest window, they look for different ones. And it's an endless search because whatever they latch on to only works for a fleeting moment or two.
In my estimation, the followers of the concept of Tao are less scared of life; hence, no need for a shield.
I live in Scranton Pennsylvania in the USA, so I guess I am an American Idiot, (Love that song), especially because I thought an audioscrobbler was someone who talked alot because they drank too much coffee. Your lucky to be straightedge. The first cigarette I tried was pot, or maryjane. I tried a Lucky Strike after that and thought real smokes were boring. I am an artificial straightedge now. I joined Alcoholic and Narco recovery groups and I can identify what you are now. Unfortunately whereas you will remember your life I only started getting a memory when I got sober. Seems I ran to my mothers little shelter to get some mother of a helper to long and too much. Know anyone in Walshingham? Me neither but my friend is blind and emails him some great emails. I get to help.
One thing I can say for sure is that Star War is a copy of a Chinese Story. The Way of the Force might help ring a bell to some of those people, where the story writer might get those ideas from in the first place. I hope they might stop believing in something that come from a movie and try to pick up a book.
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