Welcome to Jedi Praxeum. This is our last class. I want to thank you all for coming along on this crazy Jedi ride and learning so much and teaching me so much. Before we begin I want to talk about the homework, practice feeling the Force, and an idea.
Knighthood
So you have put in the training, read way to much, practice until you dream of the Force (I totally have done that a few times), went through your trials, and now, finally you are a knight! (cue heavenly music) First off congrats! And second, what do you do now? What is your life? Why did you seek this title? What are your responsibilities? What are your rights? What is the future of a Knight? Well, let's talk about that!
Let’s talk about what is a Jedi Knight? A Jedi Knight is someone who has gone through their training, learning the core lessons and skills such as meditation, feeling and using the Force, patience, the code, learning the mindset of service, learned how to keep a cool head in a stressful situation, ect. A Jedi Knight is one who has the ability to use the Force to affect positive change. They can ones who can, through the Force, sense its currents and know how to affect the world around them. They are keenly aware of the delicate harmony of nature and strive to preserve and defend that harmony though their actions. And most importantly, they know how to teach others how to sense and interact with the Force. They have been tested and can show they know what the skills and teachings are and can practice with confidence. A knight is someone who can be trusted to practice without guidance, is ready and able to start a project, serve the community, and represent themselves as Jedi without help or mishap.
What are the responsibilities of a knight? It’s not just a shiny title. There are certain duties you are expected to do. You will be expected to act in accordance to your title, meaning act like a knight. This means not to troll others, not to get into heated public fights, not to spread rumors, ect. You need to welcome anyone into the group, be on the lookout for trolls and those who obviously don’t belong. You need to answer questions in a useful, graceful manner. You need to direct people to various Jedi resources. You are expected to add to various online posts and to create your own posts to teach. You need to look for ways you can help the online community through articles, classes, one on ones, and helping or starting a project for the community. You are also expected to as like a knight in real life where the community can’t see you. You need to remember to help people with both big and small acts. Holding a door, helping a stressed out mother, smiling, or even helping the homeless find resources, giving directions to a lost stranger, taking care of nature such as carrying out a single piece of trash (I do so on my walks), and listening to a friend in need. These small acts help you keep the Jedi mindset active and makes it easier to practice other skills.
I would like to talk about your rank and what will happen if you do not act like a Jedi. First off Jedi Praxeum can and will take your title away if you refuse to act like a Jedi. There has been a few cases of people getting knighted and either days or months later acting like a jerk to everyone. This is not acceptable. Your are throwing away your training and disrespecting your teachers. We will try to talk to you about the issue you are having and how to better act. It’s ok to have a problem with a person or what that person is doing. It is not ok to attack them and start a huge drama fest.
What are the privileges of being a Jedi Knight?
With this responsibility you do get a few fun things. The most obvious is the shiny title, however that shininess will wear off quickly. There is a certain respect that comes with the title, but beware that some people will want proof of action that you are worthy of your title. I would also advise not to parade your title around. Use your title sparingly and only when asked. Be ready to explain your training and your knowledge. You also get the right to teach and take on your own apprentice, but I would advise to wait on that. You should explore who you are as a Jedi knight and build up some lessons and experience before teaching others.
What are Active Knights?
There are many things a knight can do. You are no longer restricted to a single training program that likely focuses or specialize in one area. To give you an example this training program is heavy on the Force but has no training in martial arts or sword fighting. You can now go find a teacher or another program that does. It is perfectly acceptably to go through several different training programs to gain knowledge and titles if you wish.
You are expected to keep training yourself and teach yourself new topics. Google is a great start in learning the basics of a topic. I also find youtube can help inspire and give you a visual perspective. Example: while I don’t enjoy the idea of carrying 30 pounds of gear for 2000-3000 miles, I have recently been learning about thru hiking or long distance hiking. This has helped me keep on walking daily and gives me an idea of how to survive if I ever had to. I’ve learned about different gear with the pros and cons and have found a few things I want to use in my only daily hikes. It has a spiritual element I can translate back to Jediism: freedom of choice in your life, freedom from technology and materialism. Independence and interdependence. Pure bliss of nature and the joy of receiving charity. Learning how to respect your health and learn how to get yourself out a bad situation. Pick a topic that sounds interesting and explore it. The world is walking, talking, noise, silent, open book. You just have to look for a lesson.
You can continue to train yourself and make videos and posts of your training. Post pictures too. I’m always posting my walks and the miles I do as inspiration to others. Try to think beyond lightsaber videos unless you are teaching someone in that video. A single video of you swinging a lightsaber looks like is fanboy stuff even if it’s not. Show yourself exercising. Show yourself at an event and then explain how this ties back to Jediism.
There are non Jedi community activities a Jedi can do. You are not limited to a couple of facebook groups. There are sooo many different facebook groups that could use help. Pm the staff and ask if there is anything they could use help or offer a well planned idea you are willing to take on yourself. I moderate on a telekinesis group and give advice and teachings on various esp groups. I wrote a free 12 page tk guide that is very similar to the lesson you all got for the tk people who are always begging to be taught. I hold non Jedi energy classes for free hoping to help the world learn about energy and improve their lives. I also support a very poor family by teaching the kids how to cook, how to shop, talk about their school, and take them on walks.
There are many other charity activities you can do. You can talk to your food bank or homeless shelter and ask what is needed. I watch a youtube series called Fathering Austism where the mother buys up supplies and gives backpacks full of goodies to a homeless spot. They work with their autistic daughter’s school to stuff backpacks with supplies which teaches the kids valuable skills. I will offer bottled water to the homeless. Christian Leddon is a great example of charity. She regularly stocks up her local food boxes called Blessing Box (go research it because it’s a super cool idea), counsels grieving/worried cat owners, attends a variety of charity events, and has a deep love for seals. She told me of a charity “One of the projects the kids do is mycokerewards. They pick up (or save) coke codes and donate the value of the code to a charity (they do the national park foundation) and have raised almost $100.00…5 cents at a time.”
Take a look around in the real world too as there are so many ways for you to help in person. You may want to see if there is a free library box full of books for people to give and take. Spend time at your local animal shelter. I have two friends who do that and find it quite rewarding. You can offer to help your elderly neighbor with a ride to a doctor or help them with their computer. I work for a bank and I often have to ask 80 year olds if there is anyone who can help them with their computer because they won’t listen to me or they don’t have a clue how to operate a browser. Be a trust worthy, patient Jedi and don’t abuse any information on that computer, yet slowly show them what to do and why to click here and not there. Schools need volunteers and supplies. I remember never having tissue boxes by spring when the class needed them. Sometimes I will take extra bags to my library who gives free bags.
What about becoming a master?
So far the community as it stands today does not have any masters. Some would argue there is no such things as mastery of Jediism. You can always keep learning. I would personally agree that the community is not ready to call anyone a master, including myself. I do think at some point we should have masters, but first we need to build up our knights. We need more people knighted, properly. We need the knights to be active and help the community. The title is not there for your ego. It’s there to inspire and help you continue your path. Once we have enough knights, said knights can discuss what would be needed to make someone a master and what that would mean. It is a long term goal of Jedi Praxeum. One of many.
What is the future of the community?
There are several angles I could take with my answer. Let’s start with Jedi Praxeum. I personally would like to get more people trained and knighted. I would like to slowly lengthen the training to six months of classes and assignment. I would like more teachers than just the few I have now. I would like to see some of the knights help give classes and give suggestions of what more to add to the training. Yes I want at least one of you who gets knighted to start teaching. Of course there will be training and support for that idea. I would like to grow Jedi Praxeum into its own functioning, growing, productive order. But that all lies in your hands. What will you do to help? Are you willing to stay around for the long term and give up your time and energy? I hope the answer is yes.
As for the Jedi community at large, there is no one plan, but there are various things I think would help. Such as gatherings. I’ve been to two. There were things I liked and things I hated and things that could go better with a bit of work. I love the idea of online Jedi meeting each other in person. That was really eye opening. I think spending a weekend with like minded people helps inspire ideas and kicks off a lot of activity and energy that helps the community. There is a lot of teaching after a gathering. I think we should put more time and money into having more local gathering. This of course requires overcoming our fear of strangers and trust that this can go well.
Another goal is obvious: train more people. Recently there has been a few attempts of programs to train people. We have the Force Academy and very new program by Dan Hatter. I will withhold my opinions of both programs as I’m glad some sort of training is happening, but we desperately need more. We need more one on ones. We need more articles. We need more instructive posts. We need videos. We need more classes. What I do is not impossible. It’s time consuming and takes a lot of planning, but it can be done and I would be more than happy to help you with your first class.
A third goal I would love to see is more unity. The Jedi community has been splintered into various groups who do not talk, agree, or get along. Yes there is a lot of history and pain involved. I wish we could put that aside and simply talk without the bicker. It would be great to see us talk about the Force, basic meditation techniques, about the code, and exercise. It would be so nice if we were willing to verify and accept the training from one group to another. We need basic trust and communication if we are ever to turn Jediism into something more official and formal.
To created this group I started off with gathering trusted Jedi that I felt would be good examples of Jedi and then proposed my idea of teaching a complete course to them. We spend two weeks debating every topic of teaching we could think of. The surprising bit: we were so civil even when we disagreed. I believe that gives proof that the Jedi can talk, can be productive, and can work together when we want to. Perhaps it would be useful to have more conversations with a group of Jedi. When you are knighted, you may want to consider this idea.
Teaching
As a Jedi knight you gain the privilege and responsibility of teaching Jediism to others. A major goal of this class is to train people enough so they can practice on their own without guidance, gain enough experience and confidence, and when ready teach what they know to others. Rather like what I am doing now. I understand from an outside perspective my teaching looks smooth, organized, calm, solid, well researched, and useful. It wasn’t always like this and I hope by sharing my notes and methods you will be understand how to teach spiritual lessons because they are a tad different from academic. Lets face it: learning about the Force is so much more fun than learning about algebra or grammar (and I probably should learn more about grammar)
My biggest suggestion to a new teacher is to start off small and simple. If I could go back in time I would start off with a few small articles. The Jedi community needs more teaching and people showing what they know. This will bring in a mindset of learning and it’s harder to bring in drama when you are learning. By having less drama the community will naturally grow and get healthier. Soon we will get closer to the long term goals I have previously described. You don’t need to wait a year or three before doing this. You can start the moment you are knighted. I wouldn’t suggest teaching a full on class right way, but build up. Maybe spend a year on articles, posts, one on one teachings until you have enough experience and confidence. But don’t give in to your fear that people will yell at you for being too active. Part of the training you have been through has to help you explore topics and build up your knowledge.
All of you know something. All of you have passions and interest. Find a topic that you know well and then write about how and why you do that. It doesn’t have to be the 5-10 pages I do weekly. Make it 3 -5 paragraphs long. Tie it into Jediism in some way. Why does a Jedi need this? What lessons would a Jedi get out of this? Then post it in Jedi Praxeum or Jedi Church and wait. It’s ok if you want to pm me and a few others bug me to respond to your teaching post. I’m more than willing to bug a few people into commenting. Remember to take in comments as calmly as you can. Sadly the Jedi can be harsh with their comments, but that is life. You have to take the bad with the good in grace. Learn from those comments. Edit your work. And then save it. Take a week or a month off and write another article. Try to write longer articles with examples, little personal experiences, facts, and explain your opinion. You are building up teaching material. That’s how I got my collection of lessons.
Another simple teaching method is to respond back to newbie posts. People are always asking questions. This is a great time to give back to the community and patiently, slowly, clearly answer that question as best as you can. If there aren’t Jedi newbie questions, find a different group. The point is together teaching experience. As you begin to answer more and more questions you will get a reputation for being a good teacher and soon you will find people seeking you out for help and knowledge. Whoa! It’s actually a prideful moment, so enjoy that that.
As you write you need to learn about the newbie mindset. You all are no longer new to Jediism and have likely forgotten the mindset you once again. Newbies question everything and believe everything for the most part. They don’t know about inner politics, the big no no topics or replies. They don’t know who is a good and bad person to talk to.
For a Jedi newbie they often don’t realize how serious we are and how we rather had fanboys and mockers. They don’t know the Force is real, but they secretly hope it is. They don’t know that Jedi training goes on for years to really get the hang of and are looking for a quick course. They want to be badasses with swinging lightsabers and overpriced costumes, but haven’t been to a fencing class. They think they are a decent person and while they are, Jediism goes beyond just being a nice person. You really have to work at being a good person who is actively good. They don’t know Hollywood doesn’t exist and think we can do unlimited abilities with the Force. You all now know using the Force takes a lot of effort, study, and practice. You can’t teach them value, riddle sounding advice. Things need to be explained, step by step, using logic.
When you get sick of articles, it’s time to teach person to person. I would start with offering to pm a newbie. When they accept the offer, pm them and offer them the chance to ask questions. I have done this many a time. It can create a really great couple of hours and possibly lead to cool friend, but it is a little nerve wreaking. They are trusting you to be the “experienced, trusted, knowledgeable Jedi” and I get that gulp. Remember experience is your friend. Listen to their questions and answer them the best you can. Draw off of your experience. Please don’t send all newbies to me as a way of getting out of teaching! Of course mention the class, but take a stance and teach them yourself!
You know more than you think. Show them links to the groups and articles and research that you know about. And if you liked them and want to teach more, offer to talk to them tomorrow. This gives you a chance to think and research (or panic run to me for help) and you can go to them and say “Ya know, I went looking into what we were talking about yesterday and I want to add/correct something….” They will love humbleness or the addition information and never know all the nerves you had. Remember teaching is a bit of a role we play. We pretend to be experts until suddenly we are and it’s no longer pretend.
As you get more comfortable with teaching one on ones, it’s time to think about teaching your first class. Note how I didn’t have to start with this. I get it. The first class is scary, but I’ll show you how to survive it. In fact, I’ll put this out: anyone who wants to teach a class, or even in one of my classes, let me know and I will make sure I am there to smooth things out and rescue you if things get out of control. I can pm you as you teach or simply standby and watch and praise.
To do a class I suggest a lot of prep work. There are a lot of questions you need to ask and answer before you even offer the class. Questions like: who do you want to teach? Newbies? More experienced people? Are you hoping for young or old? Young are more open minded, but hard to control. The old are more experienced in life, but focused and patient. You will want to learn who it is that is interested in your class and why. You may want to know if the people in the group more guys or girls. Where are they from? What lesson or skill are they looking for? You will remember I asked all of this when we first began. You can make a post or two for interest “hey is anyone interested in a class about…” and see who responds.
Another aspect of doing a class is to decide where to have the class. I personally love facebook chat because it’s so easy to add people and pretty much everyone has facebook messenger, but you don’t have to follow in my foot steps. You could use a chatroom like discord. I don’t use Discord because I find it a pain in the neck to get less tech savvy people on there. Also I have found there is always someone I really want in the class that can’t use whatever new program I am trying out, so I stay away from chatrooms. You may have a different experience. You can also do skype video or youtube. I have little experience with skype video classes. I hate the camera so I can’t really give any tips, but I know there is TONS of articles and videos about making videos and giving video classes. Go google it and read 10 different articles.
Let’s go back to the idea of you doing a facebook chat and teaching Jedi. Now we need to get into the nitty gritty about how to teach your topic. I would suggest not picking a brand new topic you have never taught before. You need to practice in articles and one on ones. I suggest writing down notes or if you are like me, prewriting it. I also do a fair amount of walks and late night pacing and talking myself through the subject. I’m pretty sure my cats are experts on the theory of the Force. Plus you get some great exercise. Run yourself through the material over and over and over until you are really comfortable with it because once you teach you will feel less confident your first time.
Make sure before you teach you are in the correct mindset. This meanings no distractions. No outside drama. I get a walk in before class so I’m not physically restless. Make sure you eat, drink, and use the bathroom. Take care of any chores or errands well before class starts. I clean my room so it’s not a visual distraction, plus a clean room is a peaceful room. I like to be ready to teach an hour before class starts. I am prepared for last minute student drama or “oh can I be added” that always happens. I review my notes, get comfy and start rallying the students.
In your material vary the way you teach and present the information. Use examples and different types of examples. Remember your class will have people from different backgrounds (rich, poor, busy life, sickness, children, pets, sports, education, art, ect) and will think differently. You need to reach them by throwing out different scenarios.
If you are teaching a how to kind of class you need to include a few things: pacing. Some people will get it quickly and others need a lot of attention. You can’t go too fast or too slow. I suggest for the slowest, offer a private class. For the quick, remind them of patience and respect for others. I find 1-2 minutes is enough for any step of the Force. Another thing is to be clear: simply saying “feel the Force” is pointless if they don’t know how to feel the Force. Telling them to breathe and relax and just feel is also pointless. What are they feeling for? How do they feel? How relaxed do they need to get? Beware of people over thinking when it comes to the Force. The Force is about experience, not thought. That’s why meditation is so important. Don’t get discourage if someone doesn’t do the exercise right. Ask them what they did exactly. You’ll see the issue. If you don’t, run yourself through steps they talked about and see how that differs from what you were teaching. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve slowly made a Force ball when a student is struggling to help them understand their mistake.
You need to decide the layout of the class: Do you want my method of lecture, question, lecture questions? Do you want to start off with an experience and then teach the theory? Do you want to start off with a question and then dive into the lecture? Do you want to ask a series of questions and use answers to direct them to an answer? Do you want to give the whole lecture and save the questions until the end? There are pros and cons to all methods. You can experiment and see what you and the students like. If you are going to do a series like mine, I suggest varying it up a bit for everyone’s sanity. I also suggest scheduling in breaks. People need time to get up and stretch. You’ll need it too. They need time to process. If you do an experience, then you need to give them the time to ask questions and get feedback.
Troublemakers: sadly they happen to all teachers. They talk out of turn. They ask silly, obviously dumb or inappropriate questions. They rudely question your ability to teach or are rude to the other students. The ruin the flow of your class. I will say this: there is no great way to handle them. You have to decide what you will tolerate and what you won’t. Not all troublemakers are the same of course. Some are pure evil trolls out to be jerks. Some are there to test you either for good intent or again to be jerks. Some are just nervous and feel the need to cause distraction to handle their nerves. Others don’t realized they are even causing issues. And there may be one or two who having learning disabilities. This is something that is learned with experience and trying out different handling methods. I suggest laying out a few class rules at the beginning. Then give out polite, calm warnings. Go back to the topic and act as if nothing happened. As a teacher you need to remain calm and under control, even if you are cursing at the screen and sweating buckets. Ask them to save their questions until you ask for questions. Politely, calmly tell them that question or comment is not appropriate right now or to have them pm you after class. I tend to give three warning before I kick anyone out. I may go to them after class and ask them what was going on if I don’t think they were a troll.
Finally and lastly: the class is coming to an end. You survived your first class! Get ready for a shower of praises and thank yous. You likely provided food for thought, entertainment, community bonding, friendships, and fun. The class may want to chat a bit about whatever or they may want to leave. Either is ok. I generally have a rule that when I am done teaching, I leave the chat. I get away from the students and have me time. I tend to give myself a treat: ice cream, a movie, going out shopping, a walk, ect. I want to end the day with a good feeling to keep myself feeling good about teaching regardless of how the class went. Not all classes are smooth for me. Sometimes I struggle. Sometimes it’s the students, sometimes it’s me, sometimes it’s the material, but I always reward myself for putting in the effort.