Greetings

[psyence53]

Sincere greetings,

After a while contemplating many things, I had resigned myself to, to put it bluntly, nothing. I'm 19 and have, after many years of depression and psychological instability, settled into a more peaceful state of depression. I shy away from anything remotely social, and have given up the few things that I previously found "worth doing."

I have always been one for learning. Perhaps that is partially what has drawn me to the Jedi path. The principles and beliefs behind the Jedi name seem to attract my agreement. I have been an athiest for as long as my conscious self remembers. I have, on numerous occasions, said: I don't believe in anything. But that is not true. I believe in peace. I believe in respect. Things which don't hold enough importance, if any, in many other religions or beliefs.

I have joined your community to learn more about this path. I admit openly, I have never been able to stick with anything. I have never really tried, because nothing felt worth it. If this, however, were to be the way for me, it would benefit not only myself, but those around me. I feel it would allow me to be a better person and to improve my day to day life while improving what I radiate to those around me.

I have done some research on the Internet, now I want to learn more. And who better to learn from than the people who know.

I hope I do not prove a waste of time. One of the most important lessons I could learn from the way of the Jedi is that of patience, and also of commitment. Especially commitment.

Thank you for your time.

[jdmcowan]

Welcome! It is always a great pleasure to have another learner join our "study group". While you will find many types and levels of knowledge in our group, we are all learners like you. There will definitely be times when you will feel like some of this is a waste of time, but in the end, you get out of it what you put into it. I have found that the times when I learned the most is when I was face to face with other Jedi, so I hope you can find a way to join us at a gathering.

And to start off the discussion, I would like to respectfully disagree that peace and respect are not of high importance in many religions and beliefs. I would instead word it a little differently. Most religions that I have looked at, in their core statements of belief, value peace and respect very highly and encourage their followers to actively promote peace and respect. The problem is the number of people who claim to follow the beliefs and either don't know the texts and core beliefs well or refuse to follow them for one reason or another. Humans, in general, have a hard time with peace and respect and it's hard for religions to overcome those natural tendancies towards war and ego. But the way I see it, we can't blame the religions for the failures of their followers.

That's my take on it anyway. Once again, welcome to the community!

Jeremy

[RyuJin]

welcome, for some good info you may want to read the great jedi holocron, the jedi jewel series, or the jedi training manual...each has very good useful information. i should warn you though that the holocron is a really long read and requires considerable time and effort to get all the way through...

you'll find plenty of knowledge and wisdom as you search through the forums

[Moonshadow]

Welcome to the JRC! Hopefully you'll find some of what you're looking for here. Feel free to check out our offline training forum or maybe start a training blog of your own in the blog section. Sharing your training with others and getting feedback can definitely help provide motivation. Please let me know if you have any questions.

--Moonshaodw

[psyence53]

JDMCowan - Thank you, and I fully agree about getting out what you put in. In regards to my comment on other religions, I wrote that a little hastily. I could not describe my opinions shortly. I do feel individuals, or groups of individuals, always manage to put a bad name on the rest of a group. It applies to any race, religion, ot youth subculture, and I find that sad. When I said theyre not of importance, I'm afraid that was said with spite for said individuals. I hate nothing more than a relative of mine's words about how all Muslims should be destroyed. Words like this pain me. Every religion that I know of has a right to be. Most followers simply want to live a righteous life, pleasing their respective God/Gods, and most are capable of respecting fellow human beings and their beliefs. Humans are complex. We all have our beliefs, but it's so sad that, as you say, humans generally struggle with the concept of peace. Seems strange, to struggle with peace...

RyuJin - Thank you, I have already bookmarked The Great Jedi Holocron and begun reading. Are the other two you mention online resources, or to be bought?

Moonshadow - Thank you, I will look into that, though I will put off a training blog until I'm settled and confident this is the way for me.

[RyuJin]

theyre online....i got the jewel series from a link in one of the threads here, can't remember where i got the training manual from though...maybe from templeofthejediorder.org somewhere in one of their libraries...

[jdmcowan]

I hate nothing more than a relative of mine's words about how all Muslims should be destroyed. Words like this pain me.

That is, indeed, quite sad. What reason could he have to want a Muslim friend of mine dead. He has generalized his fear to a whole population and then covered his fear with anger. It is a shame. It is the same fear and anger that has caused some Muslims to wish all Christians dead even 1000 years after the crusades.

Unfortunately, as you get to know more people in the Jedi community, you will likely find someone with some of those same faults. But I hope you meet enough reasonable Jedi first so that you feel that the unreasonable ones are more of an anomaly than in the religions you have had experience with.

Jeremy

[Zaron]

Welcome to our little study group as jd called it. I have many of the same problems as you mainly depresion and would like to talk to you and maybe pass a few tricks we learned between each other. Feel free to contact me if you need to talk or something. Hopefully you will see that people with disabilities are more then welcome in the jedi.

[psyence53]

Thank you, Zaron. I appreciate that.

As usual, I have very little motivation for anything, and am usually weighed down with immense sadness. It's just inbuilt. I'm currently reading up (slowly) on various resources but I'm full of self-doubt. I feel I'm perhaps quite opposite of what Jedi is and/or should be.

[Zaron]

Well my friend in my opinion there is no correct Jedi and trust me you will do more damage to yourself then good by worrying. My example might help you. I have no martial arts training and as I looked around the sites I saw that every site had at least a mention or two of martial arts having to be part of a jedi and see that maybe me feel horrible because I felt that even though I had spent my whole life training to be a Jedi I could not be one do to that one problem. I spent some any years worrying about that which keep me from applying for training. After a little while I saw a post that made me realize that I had enough knowledge to be jedi and I applied and am now a shadow student over a FA. My point is that a the person who wishes to be jedi must figure out what being a jedi means to them and then do it. Now i am only 23 so i might be way off on this but i tried. Also it is natural to doubt what your read but the only way to actually find something that helps you is just to try it no matter how stupid it sounds and yes I realize that a lot of the stuff you can finds sounds really stupid and to easy but even the easist thing can do more then the harder. I have a few things I can tell you that might help if you contact me but until then stay cool:sHa_cool: :D

[Sentinel]

Welcome psyence53,

As a Jedi Master and person who has suffered and is suffering from depression I can empathize with your feelings of depression. I am also a UK Jedi and if you want to ask questions about the Jedi path or anything at all please feel free to contact me via PM here.

Glad to have you with us!

[Rivan Elan]

Welcome Psyence53,

I, perhaps, am not around as often as some of these others but I would like to welcome you to the Jedi path. May it bring some light and hope into your world.

[Master Alex Winward]

Greetin's psyence53, *bows* welcome ta the JRC, hope ya find everything yer lookin fer