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Profile of a Real-Life Jedi Academy
dkleinsc writes "The NYTimes ran a profile of the New York Jedi Club, an organization dedicated to teaching the ways of the Force. Jedi Grandmaster Flynn Michael, a sound engineer and (by his own proclamation) an 'over-the-top geek,' connected the ideas of the Jedi with dance, martial arts, sword-fighting and Tibetan Buddhism to form the curriculum."
Why are you interested in some jedi stuff when you could be having sex and a real nice girlfriend?
Well, because of that.
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
What is the expected market demand for Jedi Knights? Can I take out a federal loan to pay my tuition fees?
Oh well, forget it ..
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
I know this looks like a joke, but dance & martial arts disguised as a game would do everyone good.
I've been a couch potato for most of my life, and now that I'm regularly training I've both healthier and happier.
The difficulty is finding a venue where it's not meat heads posing in front of mirrors and hitting on girls.
Personally I find Kettlebell training to be a non-posing good environment.
I always thought of Jedis being more of a Japanese Zen type of thing - not that it makes much of a difference in Buddhism. The differences in Buddhist traditions are just cultural; such as how the Buddha looks and the decorations of the temples and meditation halls and whether they chant more, and meditation posture - little things that really don't matter. The practice and the teachings are identical and orthopraxy over orthodoxy. I know a few Buddhists who based on their schedule will go to different meditation halls of differing traditions.
Once when I had to address the sangha, I start off with, "If reincarnation existed ..."
That's like saying in church, "If God exists ..."
No one batted an eye. Been going ever since. And no, I still think reincarnation doesn't exist. Read too much Michael Shermer.
Is he the same "Jedi Master" who allowed is lightsaber to be stolen??
There's a browser safer than Firefox, it is Firefox, with NoScript
Pfft, we've had this in finland for years:
http://www.kolumbus.fi/jedi.akatemia/
that, while on the one hand, many geeks find religion to be illogical, superstitious, and ill-founded
on the other hand,
many geeks are enamored of the religion of a bunch of characters in the mind of George Lucas in a galaxy far, far away?
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Because the Jedi "religion" offers a way of life and a fantasy of super powers that is made of other geeks that if you were to ask them seriously, wouldn't hesitate to say that their "religion" is in all fun. Deep down they're rational. It's a way of belonging because traditional religions just don't cut it anymore: they're primitive.
Other religions, especially Christian Fundamentalism, are more concerned with believing the "right way". Put 10 Christians in a room and you'll get 11 different versions of Christianity. "You have to act like Jesus to be saved!"
"No, you have to believe in Him ONLY to be saved! Acting like Him doesn't cut it!"
And so on and so on.
Then there is the complete kookiness of the Evangelicals/Christian Fundies. Here's their version of God:
Sounds like Santa Claus to me.
And they have the arrogance and conceit to think they actually know what God wants and what He thinks.
You can't get anymore blasphemous than that.
“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.”
- Han Solo
What kind of an awkward cesspool is this turning into?
The difference here is that the vast majority of those people are aware that the characters and workings of that world are fictional.
I don't really see a problem with someone being inspired by fiction, be it Naruto or Charles Dickens or Jesus for that matter, just as long as they don't try to impose it on others and seek privileged status.
Interestingly to me, Quakers (who call one another "Friend") do sometimes use the term as a kind of passive aggression as you do here.
The short answer is that I can and do deny that reincarnation is fundamental to Buddhism. Fundamental to Buddhism is that by right thinking and right practices we can be freed from our illusions about the world, and when we become free we see that there is no afterlife and no reincarnation, and can therefore be free of suffering. I think you are confusing certain versions of Buddhism with the teachings of the Buddha. The exact same with Christianity: You can be a fundamentalist as, sadly, so many Americans seem to be, and absorb the whole mythos and optionally the post-Roman accretions or the Protestant obsessions with complicated sin and justification. Or you can believe that Jesus was a great prophet and that his teachings can be the basis of an ethical belief system that helps people to live well - which fits the world picture of a lot of Episcopalians, Unitarians and Quakers.
As (as I note above) a Quaker and a Zen Buddhist, I think your thinking is in exactly the silo that led to that observation "The Arhats are like a dirty lavatory". You think that the accidental is fundamental.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
His website is truly the handywork of an especially evil sith. ... traitor!
I wouldn't trust this Jedi whom apparently enjoys inflicting pain simply by publishing stuff online.
Watch out for the dark side, would be my advice
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
where the actual 'fighting' is 'happening' in 'the real world'.
How much is this "jedi grandmaster" "donating" to slashdot for these ads?
I find this retarded.
Here's another Jedi Academy.
.. web design isn't one of the required classes
The title should read: "Profile of a Real-Life Make-Believe Jedi Academy".
Compare this to the make-believe real-life Jedi Academy portrayed in the prequel movies. Getting the order of the adjectives right makes a big difference.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The Jedi religion is based on the teachings of Taoist Neigong.
There are real schools that really do teach how to work with the force. Learning how to dance and pursue vispasina or any number of other newage BS practices aren't among them.
See this video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoOgZsQGQpA
from a bbc documentary on a real Taoist neigong master who never charged any student a dime, nor any person he healed, nor accepted donations. After this video aired he retired and is training as a recluse.
i'm surprised lucasfilm hasn't sent out the lawyer gestapo and shut this down.
...
"Reincarnation" is I feel too simplistic a term for the ideas in different Indian religions. The Jains, for instance, have a doctrine of reincarnation in which the thing that is reincarnated has no memory of its previous existence and passes through the chain of created beings from a stone to a God and back again, over and over. It is not reincarnation as the majority of Westerners imagine it.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
I have started a Sith Academy.... but there is only 2 of us...
"I know this looks like a joke, but dance & martial arts disguised as a game would do everyone good."
You mean like Ti Bo?
Actually, what they have is the start of another cult religion as well.. like scientology or mormonism... And 'Jedi' is now a legal religion in the UK, if I am not mistaken.
As for your predictions, it may be true about levitation, etc. But, training for any martial art, including the choreography and light touch of wielding a 'light saber', is excellent cardio, hand eye coordination and mental discipline. All of which translate to better health, self esteem and over all wellness... which means "more, and better, sex" than those sitting at home in the comfy chair making fun of people going out to do a physical hobby.
As someone who spent years doing SCA heavy fighting, I can assure you the workout is excellent. Then again, in heavy we wear a hundred+ pounds of steel/padded gear and wield 5-20lb rattan weapons that would break your skull. There is an old, but more or less true, story of the SCA fighter who joins the military and when it comes to training with a baton the sergeant whallops a couple students then picks the SCA fighter, who plants him several times without ever taking a hit... "Where'd you learn that... I'm an SCA Knight.. "
It wouldn't surprise me to see their jedi training accelerate to the levels of SCA heavy fighting eventually, with modified bushido-style armor, competitions and serious blows being dealt. As for now, it sounds like rapier and fencing.. both of which are fantastic exercise.
[Waves hand]
"These are not the prequel movies you are looking for."
And 'Jedi' is now a legal religion in the UK, if I am not mistaken.
You are. A hoax went around about a decade ago, saying that if sufficient people marked "Jedi" as their religion on the census, they'd have to acknowledge it as an official religion. But it was, well, a hoax. They have to do no such thing.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
tell me that there will be an increase in the number of geeks beaten up in the coming years....
Hello,
Indeed but what I find hugely amusing is how much clone war episod are inspired by meditation / buddhist precepts (e.g. Padme = passion) It's almost a rip off. So all this Jedi stuff might lead some people to study serious stuff for greater good.
For those who are interested, the notion of "Force" is probably a rip off of Irina Rockwell and Chögyam Trungpa about Shambala:
http://nalandabodhi.webpossystem.com/ViewProduct.asp?ModelNumber=199
The plural of "Jedi" is "Jedi," not "Jedis."
Thank you.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
...and we can never have anything nice.
Complete fucking idiots who need their teeth knocked in and set to doing something rational and constructive.
I just looked up "SCA heavy fighting". Jesus tittyfucking Christ there are some nutjobs in the world.
It puts this story of fellow retards into a bit of perspective though. If I'd read about it in a book by Neil Stephenson, I would have admired the bold satire, never dreaming it could actually be true.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
What? It's fun, good exercise, and it's something you can get together and do with 800 of your closest friends.
ladies and gentlemen, i present to you, Jedi Grandmaster Flynn Michael
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPPj6viIBmU
insensitive clod overlords obligatory xkcd car analogy russian reversals whoosh pedant fanbois ftfy in 3...2...1..PROFIT
too crap, couldn't read
http://www.acetonestudio.com
Not only that, some of the fighters in the SCA are very interested in studying historical swordplay. I have friends in Caid (southern California) who have been studying unarmored combat from historical manuals -- the style is very different from what's historically accurate technique for fighting in heavy armor. (Which, contrary to what one might expect, mainly was a lot of grapping in order to secure an opportunity to pierce the unarmored or weakly armored portions of the enemy's coverage -- armpits, groins, necks, etc.)
Pretty cool stuff if you're interested in historical fighting.
It did get some recognition; the ONS (Office for National Statistics) included them in several press releases:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/census-2001-summary-theme-figures-and-rankings/390-000-jedis-there-are/jedi.html
and their numbers were recorded; it just didn't lead to official recognition of a religion as ... that's not how you get official recognition of a religion; the census just reports what people say. None the less it was certainly more than 'statistically significant'. See also:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_census_phenomenon
Our philosophy is easy. Enjoy yourself, get a good physical workout, relax in your own skin by hanging out with like minded people. This is a group of artists. Check out the videos and other news pieces done on us.
The influence of principles I've learned that coincide with the "Jedi Way" is a fun comparison tool, and gives way to much movie-quoting when being, as a former student once said, "All Jedi and Sh**!" But the one thing that's real, is the brotherhood-like feel of working with others in making not only physical theater, but using Warrior's ways (Lau Tzu, Musashi, Sun Tsu, etc) give a person insight to themselves by stretching their knowledge of the character they want to embody.
I've had the opportunity to meet some great people, and travel to some fun places. Please come join us and have some fun!
-=Flynn=-
newyorkjedi.com