Jediism is bigger in scope than the Earth. Jediism is the first religion on Earth that incorporates more than merely terrestrial adherents. Jediism is a religion negotiated among many worlds, and as such it is the way of spiritual ambassadors, the seekers of common threads among various manifestations of consciousness in the Cosmos. Unlike many religions, Jediism is engaged in what is rather than wild and vain imaginings. For this reason, Jediism is an ally of science. Essentially, Jediism is scientific ultra-universalism. Jediism is also post-terrestrial. Like the Copernican model that unseated the quaint heliocentric model of the Universe, Jediism arises to unseat the pathological self-fixation of emerging civilizations.
Jediism lies beyond religion and even philosophy, since the compilation of the noospheres of several worlds cannot be well defined as a philosophy. The reality of Jediism is a very complex key, an nth dimensional shape describing the "fit" between several cultures and spacetime. Jediism does the best job possible of providing a working interface between science and the unknown for planetary cultures as they are found, while facilitating spiritual discourse among worlds, an unknown which is typically occupied by imaginative and inaccurate concepts such as a flat Earth or various gods and goddesses. Much is possible with this lens, much more than the uninured might imagine. Noetic Jedi—naturalist monks dedicated to pursuit of enlightenment and self-improvement—are always seeking out indiginous spiritual methodologies such as Taoist meditation, Hindu tantra and Amerindian sweat lodges—much the same way as medical agencies from more developed countries consult rainforest shamans in order to illuminate new therapies—in order to deepen our understanding of the Universe and expand our network of practices and therapies for understanding and healing.
The Taoists of Earth may have the most in common with Jediism of all terrestrial religions. They know the universal fabric as the Tao, or the Way. Wiccans know it as the Web of Wyrd. Taoists divide the global and potential manifestation of this fabric, the Tao, from its active expression or chi. Concentrating on both, we join this duality with the term the Force. This fabric is misunderstood as God by Abrahamic religions, which favor the arbitrary projection of politically significant personality to true understanding, and crying out in prayer to the mature listening of meditation.
Jediism is the Unreligion. We do not recognize deities, for the higher consciousnesses of the Universe do not desire slavish worship. If they have desires toward us, they resemble harmony and friendship. We do not recognize superiors. Whenever the will of the many is subjected to one, there is injustice and darkness. Monopolization of power is a form of the Sith. Each of us is already part of the fabric of the Universe; we have merely forgotten due to layers of conditioning. Children are born strong in the Force, and antagonistic cultures deprive them of their natal sense. The objective of the Jedi is individual integration with the Universe; oneness with the holistic and universalized self. We take an approach that encompasses the intellectual, spiritual and physical dimensions of humanity. For the sake of human progress, it is unwise to deny any one particular dimension of human expression to the detriment of the whole. Thus, we may be considered both hedonistic and humanistic.
Naturalism, oneness with the untrammeled being of Nature, is essential to the Jedi. Nature brings us much closer to the Force than contrived cultures. We have seen the lifestyle of Master Yoda. His simplicity afforded his clarity of vision and his purity of being. His union with Nature afforded his ascension. The Old Masters of the Tao knew the primacy of this call to Nature as well. How many problems of the world today could not be solved by simply returning to Nature, and letting go of all the unnecessary clutter, trappings, contrivances and poisons of technological control?
"Yedi" means "helpful"—and what are Jedi but supreme generalists who help, and the ultimate Renaissance men, if the enlightenment of the Renaissance had continued through a true Golden Age?
Be still, choose happiness, and know that you are already one with the Force.
Readings:
The Tao te Ching at http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/texts/taote-v3.html is available online. The Mitchell translation is a wonderful, brief work dense with the wisdom common to Taoism and Jediism.
The Axemaker's Gift at http://www.amazon.com/Axemakers-Gift-Robert-Ornstein/dp/0874778565 is a recent academic work that comes to the conclusion that the many dark modalities of centripetal control and over-specialization that have led civilization collectively down the Sith path, instigated by the ancient axemakers of the Paleolithic and intensified greatly by the God-Kings of Mesopotamia, may be reversed by a new marriage with primitive holism. Prescription: get off the grid, return to Nature, decentralize, distribute, network, forge local community.
