Post by Alena on Dec 26, 2006 19:54:22 GMT -5
Below you will find writings by many different Jedi from FFU about many different topics concerning Jedi Principles. Each writing is credited to the original author of the writing. This is just one more section that will give you more of a glimps into the life and what makes a Jedi, a Jedi.
Fear
What is fear? Why do we fear something? Is fear a good thing or a bad thing? Can we overcome fear? These are questions I see asked on many occasions by many people. I also notice not many people like to discuss the topic of fear. You don’t see many actually talk about it. Well let’s see what the dictionary has to say about it:
Fear
n.
1.
a. A feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger.
b. A state or condition marked by this feeling: living in fear.
2. A feeling of disquiet or apprehension: a fear of looking foolish.
3. Extreme reverence or awe, as toward a supreme power.
4. A reason for dread or apprehension: Being alone is my greatest fear.
v. feared, fear•ing, fears
v. tr.
1. To be afraid or frightened of.
2. To be uneasy or apprehensive about: feared the test results.
3. To be in awe of; revere.
4. To consider probable; expect: I fear you are wrong. I fear I have bad news for you.
5. Archaic. To feel fear within (oneself).
v. intr.
1. To be afraid.
2. To be uneasy or apprehensive.
So as we see there are a few different aspects to fear. If you notice many of them have to do with your own feelings or your own opinions or views. Society can place many of these fears in us, out parents can, and we can also instill these fears into ourselves. Many times it tends to be society and our parents. Our parents usually instill these fears into us without knowing it. For example my Mom is terrified of heights but she vowed to never act like she was around me and I don’t recall here ever acting that way but I still ended up with a basic fear of heights. I will do roller coasters and other things where I am safely enclosed no problem. I love to fly and was working on my pilots license at one point but plan to go back to get it down the road. It’s when I am not too secure like standing on a ledge of a huge cliff or in a really tall Ferris wheel that I get a little uneasy. I know I got this from my Mom unintentionally. Society can also instill fears into us for example a dark alley. Most of the time absolutely nothing will happen from walking down a dark alley but with all the stories you have heard about things happening in a dark alley or some of the many movies you have watched where something happened in a dark alley you tend to tense up right away. Now I wouldn’t suggest walking down a dark alley because that is putting you in the position for something happening which I would never suggest but many times at just the site of something like that we tense up even though there is no rational reason to act tense or scarred at that moment. We do that because of what we have watched or heard from other sources.
Also be careful you are not assigning fears. A great example is when you go to the doctor as a kid. Kids love going to doctors until they get to experience their first shot. From that day forward they assign the fear of the shot to the doctor. So anytime you tell them they are going to the doctor even if they aren’t receiving a shot they are still scarred because they have instilled that fear and attached it to the doctor. So when determining what your fears are in order to learn how to deal with them make sure you are seeing the base cause of that fear and not the attachment you have made with the fear.
Now a type of fear we instill into ourselves is through unease, uncertainty, and apprehension. A great example is tests. Many people get scared before a big or important test. Why do we fear them, well we want to do well on them on not fail. I won’t go into too much of a soapbox on this but what if someone told you that tests have nothing to do with what you actually know. It is a matter of how you do against everyone else taking the test. Or I could tell you it’s not what you know but your actually ability to compete against a clock. I could also tell you it’s not what you know but your ability to reason, write, and etc. Many times when you understand more about your fear you realize there is no need for it. Also it can make you realize maybe you are not as prepared for something as you should be. I have done auditions on trumpet that I was scarred to death because I wasn’t prepared and then done auditions where I was so confident because I knew my solo inside and out. Same thing with anything else, many times the fear is due to being unprepared.
Is fear a bad thing or a good thing? As the quote goes, a teaspoon of medicine will help but a spoonful will kill. It’s the same here. Too much fear and you will destroy yourself. It will cause you to forget everything you have studied for a test; it will cause you to not take chances because one of your fears is involved. Maybe you were offered a trip to go somewhere to learn from someone but couldn’t take it because you were scarred to fly. Fear is a part of human nature. We all have at least one thing that we are scarred of or apprehensive about. I believe some fear you can turn into adrenaline and have it work for you instead of against you. When I began performing solos on trumpet in front of audience I was terrified and that’s putting it nicely. Over the years and after doing it more often I began to realize there was no need to have any of those fears. Now it’s more of being nervous before a performance or a test. I look at being nervous as the lesser extent of fear. It keeps you on your toes. If you are too relaxed you might make mistakes. How many times when something was supposed to be so easy you just go right through it and end up making a bunch of mistakes. Put just a little bit of pressure on the situation to make you a little nervous and I find people perform much better. So I look at being nervous as keeping you on your toes. The extreme can destroy you but a little can help you in more ways then you might ever imagine.
The final question, can we overcome fear? This is a matter of opinion and different people will answer this differently. My opinion is that we can never total remove any given fear 100%. We more so learn how to deal with it and accept the fear. For example my fear I had when playing in front of an audience. I learned all of the causes that led to my fear. Having people hear me mess up. People are there to hear me screw up. What if I get lost in my music? What if I don’t tune correct and other things like that. Most of those I realized where just ridiculous. Once I made the change in my own thinking of how ridiculous some of those fears were I didn’t fear them any more. I still get nervous about missing a note hear and there but that helps keep me on my toes. I use that nervousness to give me even more energy to put into making music.
by Jedi Xhaiden
Self-Knowledge
Some may find this information useful in getting to know your true self.
Self-knowledge is something that cannot be achieved by meditation alone.We need to be able to focus our own energies in order to learn anything about ourselves.Most people think that they know themselves very well,but they really know very little.They recognize their physical body,but what do they really know about their feelings?They always seem to express their current feelings,but what about the emotions that they have kept hidden away?
We may act happy when we are raging on the inside,or vice versa.But we must acknowledge the feelings that we have kept bottled up.We must accept them.Otherwise,these emotions break free from us at the wrong time.A person must analyse themselves before gaining self-knowledge of themselves.Ask yourself:How do I feel now?Am I happy,sad,angry?Am I expressing these emotions to the people around me?What emotions have I got locked away inside myself?
Asking yourself (or even making up a little quiz about yourself,if it helps) what type of person you are is the first step towards gaining self-knowledge.When you can accept and train yourself to be free of self-containment,you will be well on your way to learning about your true self.Letting go of hate and spreading joy to others helps you to discover what kind of person you really are.The satisfaction of completing a good deed can help a person set free their bottled-up emotions,making them feel "at one" with themselves.Also,you must not let outside influences change your opinions.Learn from others,teach others,but do not change your own beliefs because you are under pressure or being ridiculed.You will only grow angrier,and find it difficult to let go of that anger.Nobody has the right to force their own beliefs onto you anyway.But remember that you do not have the right to force your beliefs on them either.
by Fionn
Materialism
Most of us generally recognize that certainly, some material objects are necessary, and others, while not strictly necessary, are still very practical to have. However, a great wealth of material things is not necessary to live a happy and worthwhile life. Material items can bring a certain measure of happiness, but ultimately, that happiness is cheap and short-lived compared to the happiness that comes from doing good, helping someone, growing as a person.
Although I have not experienced this personally, I know, from what I have read and observed, that a curious thing happens when people lose all, or most of, their possessions. Generally, they take stock of what they do still have, and reevaluate what these things mean to them. They may realize that what really matters is family and friends, love for others, rather than money and material things. These people will continue their lives, collect more material things, but since they have learned the lesson, they may not have as many things as they used to, and these things will not mean as much to them as they did previously. Even if they lose all their possessions again, it will not mean very much to them, because they have already learned the lesson.
Other people who lost everything will become angry. They will be angry at the storm, the mayor, governor, President, just seeking to place blame somewhere. They will be too closeminded to learn any lesson from the experience, and when they can, they will gather more material objects, and they will think that these objects mean something. They will not have learned anything about materialism. Perhaps, because they have not yet learned the lesson, they will be given another opportunity to learn it. Maybe another storm will come and they will lose everything again. Then they might realize the relative value of material things, how little they really matter, or maybe they will not learn the lesson this time either, and they will have to go through the cycle again and again until they learn the lesson, if not in this lifetime, in the next one, or the next.
Knowing what we know about materialism, it is up to each of us as individuals to look at ourselves, look at our lives. Are we materialistic? Do we have more than we need? Can we get rid of some of what we have, give it to someone who doesn't have what they need?
Take a look at yourself. Some people have a hurricane for them to learn the lesson, but you can learn it as soon as you think about it, really look at yourself and make some choices. Do you choose to be materialistic?
by Jedi Archivist Kethrim
Feelings and Emotions
So what are feelings and what are emotions? What is the difference between feelings and emotions? Eric Jensen says, “Feelings are a learned response in the culture in which you grow up (the family, the peers, the community, etc.).” Think back to when you were growing up. If you were near the stove when it was on something many of us probably heard was, don’t touch that, it’s hot. Another example might be from being in the mall or at school. You might see someone getting yelled at and they may be crying so you begin to associate being yelled and how you feel when that happens with crying. Feelings are typically referred to as sensations. They are something you directly feel. Feelings are generally take place within yourself. There might be physical cues to what you are feeling like tears coming down your face and etc. Emotions are reactions about someone or something. Emotions are much easier to see on the outside and tend to take place as a reaction to something or someone. You are angry about something or you are scarred of someone are two examples of emotions. It is a reaction to someone or something. Anger, fear, sadness and etc. are feelings by themselves. Attach something or someone to them with a response/reaction and they turn into an emotion.
I personally think of feelings as neutral. By themselves there is no positive or negative outcome of just feelings. If you touch that hot stove and get burned it hurts but many times people will turn that hurt into anger at the stove and will kick the stove, punch a hole in the wall, or something else. They took that feeling of pain and attached something to it and created a reaction based off that feeling which would be an emotion. A Jedi would instead take that feeling of pain and generate it into something useful. They might use the energy generated from the heat and pain and turn that into energy that can be used to help heal the burn and numb the pain sensation instead of turning that energy outward into anger.
In order to learn to control our emotions we need to first change our learned responses. Through watching our parents when we grew up we might have learned to associate pain with anger. When you hurt you might get angry and take it out on someone or something so you need to change your learned response to pain. If you can change all of your learned responses where anger was the reaction you will have learned to control that emotion. The key is figuring out what your learned responses are to each feeling.
by Jedi Xhaiden
Fear
What is fear? Why do we fear something? Is fear a good thing or a bad thing? Can we overcome fear? These are questions I see asked on many occasions by many people. I also notice not many people like to discuss the topic of fear. You don’t see many actually talk about it. Well let’s see what the dictionary has to say about it:
Fear
n.
1.
a. A feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger.
b. A state or condition marked by this feeling: living in fear.
2. A feeling of disquiet or apprehension: a fear of looking foolish.
3. Extreme reverence or awe, as toward a supreme power.
4. A reason for dread or apprehension: Being alone is my greatest fear.
v. feared, fear•ing, fears
v. tr.
1. To be afraid or frightened of.
2. To be uneasy or apprehensive about: feared the test results.
3. To be in awe of; revere.
4. To consider probable; expect: I fear you are wrong. I fear I have bad news for you.
5. Archaic. To feel fear within (oneself).
v. intr.
1. To be afraid.
2. To be uneasy or apprehensive.
So as we see there are a few different aspects to fear. If you notice many of them have to do with your own feelings or your own opinions or views. Society can place many of these fears in us, out parents can, and we can also instill these fears into ourselves. Many times it tends to be society and our parents. Our parents usually instill these fears into us without knowing it. For example my Mom is terrified of heights but she vowed to never act like she was around me and I don’t recall here ever acting that way but I still ended up with a basic fear of heights. I will do roller coasters and other things where I am safely enclosed no problem. I love to fly and was working on my pilots license at one point but plan to go back to get it down the road. It’s when I am not too secure like standing on a ledge of a huge cliff or in a really tall Ferris wheel that I get a little uneasy. I know I got this from my Mom unintentionally. Society can also instill fears into us for example a dark alley. Most of the time absolutely nothing will happen from walking down a dark alley but with all the stories you have heard about things happening in a dark alley or some of the many movies you have watched where something happened in a dark alley you tend to tense up right away. Now I wouldn’t suggest walking down a dark alley because that is putting you in the position for something happening which I would never suggest but many times at just the site of something like that we tense up even though there is no rational reason to act tense or scarred at that moment. We do that because of what we have watched or heard from other sources.
Also be careful you are not assigning fears. A great example is when you go to the doctor as a kid. Kids love going to doctors until they get to experience their first shot. From that day forward they assign the fear of the shot to the doctor. So anytime you tell them they are going to the doctor even if they aren’t receiving a shot they are still scarred because they have instilled that fear and attached it to the doctor. So when determining what your fears are in order to learn how to deal with them make sure you are seeing the base cause of that fear and not the attachment you have made with the fear.
Now a type of fear we instill into ourselves is through unease, uncertainty, and apprehension. A great example is tests. Many people get scared before a big or important test. Why do we fear them, well we want to do well on them on not fail. I won’t go into too much of a soapbox on this but what if someone told you that tests have nothing to do with what you actually know. It is a matter of how you do against everyone else taking the test. Or I could tell you it’s not what you know but your actually ability to compete against a clock. I could also tell you it’s not what you know but your ability to reason, write, and etc. Many times when you understand more about your fear you realize there is no need for it. Also it can make you realize maybe you are not as prepared for something as you should be. I have done auditions on trumpet that I was scarred to death because I wasn’t prepared and then done auditions where I was so confident because I knew my solo inside and out. Same thing with anything else, many times the fear is due to being unprepared.
Is fear a bad thing or a good thing? As the quote goes, a teaspoon of medicine will help but a spoonful will kill. It’s the same here. Too much fear and you will destroy yourself. It will cause you to forget everything you have studied for a test; it will cause you to not take chances because one of your fears is involved. Maybe you were offered a trip to go somewhere to learn from someone but couldn’t take it because you were scarred to fly. Fear is a part of human nature. We all have at least one thing that we are scarred of or apprehensive about. I believe some fear you can turn into adrenaline and have it work for you instead of against you. When I began performing solos on trumpet in front of audience I was terrified and that’s putting it nicely. Over the years and after doing it more often I began to realize there was no need to have any of those fears. Now it’s more of being nervous before a performance or a test. I look at being nervous as the lesser extent of fear. It keeps you on your toes. If you are too relaxed you might make mistakes. How many times when something was supposed to be so easy you just go right through it and end up making a bunch of mistakes. Put just a little bit of pressure on the situation to make you a little nervous and I find people perform much better. So I look at being nervous as keeping you on your toes. The extreme can destroy you but a little can help you in more ways then you might ever imagine.
The final question, can we overcome fear? This is a matter of opinion and different people will answer this differently. My opinion is that we can never total remove any given fear 100%. We more so learn how to deal with it and accept the fear. For example my fear I had when playing in front of an audience. I learned all of the causes that led to my fear. Having people hear me mess up. People are there to hear me screw up. What if I get lost in my music? What if I don’t tune correct and other things like that. Most of those I realized where just ridiculous. Once I made the change in my own thinking of how ridiculous some of those fears were I didn’t fear them any more. I still get nervous about missing a note hear and there but that helps keep me on my toes. I use that nervousness to give me even more energy to put into making music.
by Jedi Xhaiden
Self-Knowledge
Some may find this information useful in getting to know your true self.
Self-knowledge is something that cannot be achieved by meditation alone.We need to be able to focus our own energies in order to learn anything about ourselves.Most people think that they know themselves very well,but they really know very little.They recognize their physical body,but what do they really know about their feelings?They always seem to express their current feelings,but what about the emotions that they have kept hidden away?
We may act happy when we are raging on the inside,or vice versa.But we must acknowledge the feelings that we have kept bottled up.We must accept them.Otherwise,these emotions break free from us at the wrong time.A person must analyse themselves before gaining self-knowledge of themselves.Ask yourself:How do I feel now?Am I happy,sad,angry?Am I expressing these emotions to the people around me?What emotions have I got locked away inside myself?
Asking yourself (or even making up a little quiz about yourself,if it helps) what type of person you are is the first step towards gaining self-knowledge.When you can accept and train yourself to be free of self-containment,you will be well on your way to learning about your true self.Letting go of hate and spreading joy to others helps you to discover what kind of person you really are.The satisfaction of completing a good deed can help a person set free their bottled-up emotions,making them feel "at one" with themselves.Also,you must not let outside influences change your opinions.Learn from others,teach others,but do not change your own beliefs because you are under pressure or being ridiculed.You will only grow angrier,and find it difficult to let go of that anger.Nobody has the right to force their own beliefs onto you anyway.But remember that you do not have the right to force your beliefs on them either.
by Fionn
Materialism
Most of us generally recognize that certainly, some material objects are necessary, and others, while not strictly necessary, are still very practical to have. However, a great wealth of material things is not necessary to live a happy and worthwhile life. Material items can bring a certain measure of happiness, but ultimately, that happiness is cheap and short-lived compared to the happiness that comes from doing good, helping someone, growing as a person.
Although I have not experienced this personally, I know, from what I have read and observed, that a curious thing happens when people lose all, or most of, their possessions. Generally, they take stock of what they do still have, and reevaluate what these things mean to them. They may realize that what really matters is family and friends, love for others, rather than money and material things. These people will continue their lives, collect more material things, but since they have learned the lesson, they may not have as many things as they used to, and these things will not mean as much to them as they did previously. Even if they lose all their possessions again, it will not mean very much to them, because they have already learned the lesson.
Other people who lost everything will become angry. They will be angry at the storm, the mayor, governor, President, just seeking to place blame somewhere. They will be too closeminded to learn any lesson from the experience, and when they can, they will gather more material objects, and they will think that these objects mean something. They will not have learned anything about materialism. Perhaps, because they have not yet learned the lesson, they will be given another opportunity to learn it. Maybe another storm will come and they will lose everything again. Then they might realize the relative value of material things, how little they really matter, or maybe they will not learn the lesson this time either, and they will have to go through the cycle again and again until they learn the lesson, if not in this lifetime, in the next one, or the next.
Knowing what we know about materialism, it is up to each of us as individuals to look at ourselves, look at our lives. Are we materialistic? Do we have more than we need? Can we get rid of some of what we have, give it to someone who doesn't have what they need?
Take a look at yourself. Some people have a hurricane for them to learn the lesson, but you can learn it as soon as you think about it, really look at yourself and make some choices. Do you choose to be materialistic?
by Jedi Archivist Kethrim
Feelings and Emotions
So what are feelings and what are emotions? What is the difference between feelings and emotions? Eric Jensen says, “Feelings are a learned response in the culture in which you grow up (the family, the peers, the community, etc.).” Think back to when you were growing up. If you were near the stove when it was on something many of us probably heard was, don’t touch that, it’s hot. Another example might be from being in the mall or at school. You might see someone getting yelled at and they may be crying so you begin to associate being yelled and how you feel when that happens with crying. Feelings are typically referred to as sensations. They are something you directly feel. Feelings are generally take place within yourself. There might be physical cues to what you are feeling like tears coming down your face and etc. Emotions are reactions about someone or something. Emotions are much easier to see on the outside and tend to take place as a reaction to something or someone. You are angry about something or you are scarred of someone are two examples of emotions. It is a reaction to someone or something. Anger, fear, sadness and etc. are feelings by themselves. Attach something or someone to them with a response/reaction and they turn into an emotion.
I personally think of feelings as neutral. By themselves there is no positive or negative outcome of just feelings. If you touch that hot stove and get burned it hurts but many times people will turn that hurt into anger at the stove and will kick the stove, punch a hole in the wall, or something else. They took that feeling of pain and attached something to it and created a reaction based off that feeling which would be an emotion. A Jedi would instead take that feeling of pain and generate it into something useful. They might use the energy generated from the heat and pain and turn that into energy that can be used to help heal the burn and numb the pain sensation instead of turning that energy outward into anger.
In order to learn to control our emotions we need to first change our learned responses. Through watching our parents when we grew up we might have learned to associate pain with anger. When you hurt you might get angry and take it out on someone or something so you need to change your learned response to pain. If you can change all of your learned responses where anger was the reaction you will have learned to control that emotion. The key is figuring out what your learned responses are to each feeling.
by Jedi Xhaiden