Holocron of Jetsi Malin

Recently, I have gone past the superficial and delved into a deeper understanding of the Jedi, and of myself.  These ruminations have led to other questions or revalations into my own self.  Here are two of them:

The Jedi respect all life.  We know this to be true from the Jedi Creed:  Jedi respect all life, in any form.  When it comes to abortion, I have always felt it was the womans right to choose.  Now this aspect of the code has me wondering if I am mistaken in my own personal beliefs.  Unlike current abortion code, the Jedi Code and Creed have no caveats, no differentiation or care of incest, health of the mother, etc.  Further contemplation is required, but I was wondering if anybody else had wrestled with this aspect of being a Jedi.
Also, I was doing some research into the Jedi, and came upon this information while reading about the history of the Jedi Order:After the war with the Yuuzhan Vong was over, Luke realized that the order would have to further adapt in order to survive. His experiences had led him to believe that the Force was not rigidly divided into a light and a dark side. Strong emotions, including anger, were not intrinsically evil; instead, the intentions of the Force user mattered most. Luke came to believe that nearly everyone, regardless of their heritage, had some ability to touch and use the Force. He also felt that individual Jedi (and other Force users) would need to discover their own paths: some could be called to contemplative life while others would feel a need to take a more active role in galactic affairs.
The portion, highlighted in bold, is the part of that sentence that has the most meaning to me. As I have mentioned earlier, I have struggled at times with the training of the Ashla Knights. I don’t find fault with the Ashla Knights by themselves, but all of the Jedi training sites in general, as I feel the training and path of the Jedi is their very own instead of following a specific program, steps 1 through 1,802. To keep the metaphor going, while walking through the forest I may lose sight of the path I am walking on, but if I am talking to somebody via a satellite phone they will not be able to walk the path for me nor will they be able to point me in the right direction. They might be able to provide me with some guidance and training that will allow me to find the path again, but they cannot do it for me. Finding the path is solely up to me, the Jedi (in training?).<br><br>I mean no disrespect to Master Thompson or the Ashla Knights, but I feel the training is perhaps too rigid. While awaiting the new website, I am also working on how to mesh my own personal beliefs with those of Ashla to make the entire concept feasible and conflict free.

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I am constantly trying different things when it comes to meditation in an effort to find out which works best for me.  Visualization, concentration on the breath, body scanning, mantras, guided meditation, music, nature sounds, etc., I have pretty much tried them all. So far, I would have to say that concentration on my breathing, short mantras, and visualization while listening to nature sounds work the best for me. Music distracts me WAY too much, and listening to somebody talking doesn’t work well for me either. The choice in nature sounds even seems to influence my meditation. Constant noise, such as rain or a stream, works better for me than noises with tempo, such as waves.  

Which methods do you find that work well for you? Perhaps there is something that I haven’t tried yet that might work well for me.

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I am enjoying the question and answer format, so here is something I have been thinking about for a while.

Before I knew or believed in the Force as something that existed outside of the movie theater, by looking back upon my life I feel that the Force has indeed had an influence upon my life.  I understand that my current knowledge can add color to my memories and that my memories can be manipulated to fit a preconceived notion of my psyche, but I truly believe there is more to it than this.  Let me explain further.

When I think of the Force I think of Daoism.  The Daoist concepts of nature, instinct, and going with the flow seem most like the concepts of the Force in my own interpretation. As I look back upon my life, I can see clear examples of how my life has been influenced by the Force and its Daoist aspects. Here are some of these examples:

• I grew up in Lincoln, Nebraska, but ever since my first visit to Colorado at the age of seven I have always felt the call of the mountains.  Everytime I go into the mountains I just feel “right”.  Mountains hold a place of importance to the Daoists due to its inherent nature, and for this reason I think it appeals to the Force user as well.  The pull was so strong that I now live at the base of the Rocky Mountains. 
• The thought of working in an office from 9 to 5 every weekday scares the hell out of me.  If I look back on every job I have ever held, all of them except one involve working outside in one form or another.  My current job as a pilot isn’t exactly an outside job, but I get the opportunity to look out the window aand watch as nature passes by and change with the seasons.
•  I have gone through most of my life as an optimist, going with the flow, not too worried about what will happen tomorrow or dwelling on what I did the day before.  I was and continue to be mindful, and even though life wasn’t always great I enjoyed the majority of it.

There are other examples, but these came to mind the quickest and seemed the most relevant and easiest to share without a huge explanation or history lesson.

My point I am trying to make is that my life now seems right, but it wouldn’t have been had I not made decisions in my life to get me to where I am now. I feel that the Force pushed me, or perhaps gave me more gentle nudges, to get me to where I am now. I also have some projects underway which I feel are directly related to how my life has been influenced in the past and present.

Does anybody else feel this way?

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More of a question out of my personal interest in wanting to know other’s experiences.  When I am connected to the Force, I am calm and at peace mentally.  Physically, I feel a tingling or vibratory sensation in my hands at the beginning, and it will stay with me for some time after I finish my meditation.  Right now, I have just finished a session and am feeling the Force in my fingertips as I type.  I have had some longer meditation sessions where this same type of feeling has gone up my spine and into my head.   I think that these certain areas might be associated with the visualizations I use during some of my meditations.  Does anybody else have these same physical or emotional feelings?

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I love this time of year.  Even though everything around us is dying off and going into hibernation, I still feel reborn.  The crisp mornings and cool days, clear skies and clean air, and the ever-changing foilage always inspire me.  Last night I watched the sky change colors as the sun set over the Rocky Mountains, with what I believe was Venus brightly lit up in the southwestern sky.  You could literally see for almost one hundred miles, as I was looking at the mountains south of Pikes Peak with perfect clarity. The only thing that is bothering me, besides the economy and state of the Union,  is my meditation.  I am having a serious case of monkey mind lately, so I am trying out many new and different methods to me.  Perhaps that is why the inability to focus has come about, to broaden my horizons and give me a subtle nudge about impermanence.  Hard to say, it just feels like in my normal state my mind is running at 110%.  I am liking some of these new methods of meditation, and am certain that I will incorporate them into my future meditation periods. On other news, my shoulder is making great strides in improvement, and though I don’t have full authority back yet I am getting very close, doing my physical therapy with weights.  This is a huge weight off my shoulders (haha) as the pain from before made doing anything unejoyable and difficult.

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Well, my surgery went well so my orthopod tells me.  I have established full range of motion but it hurts like a mother*$%&*_@ doing it.  And there is still continuous pain but it is different, which leads me to hope that this one will dissipate with time.  Typing hurts, so I will get another post in later.

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As the autumnal equinox approaches and I think about the stages of the year, my thoughts have been brought back to the stages of my training.I have taken some time away from Ashla Knights, regardless of the reconfiguration of the website, because I was having some issues with the training process and its members.   But I feel that I have made much progress in that time away.  I also realized that even though I may disagree with some of the tenets, principles, and methods employed by the Ashla Knights on some subjects, I also realize that the truth is being spoken, perhaps in a dialiect that I don’t fully understand, and that the teachings here still require my attention.I look forward to the new site being unveiled, and I hope that it will exponentially increase my training opportunities here at Ashla Knights.  Perhaps my concerns will also be addressed so I don’t feel the trepidation that I currently do.  Only time will tell.Without the website and forum being active I am uncertain to the current state of the Ashla Knights.  I look forward to hearing from everybody who is still undertaking their commitment. Jetsi Malin 

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I swear the birds were singing this morning more than they have in the last few months, like they knew it was the first day of spring.

As I was enjoying the first day of spring this morning when I was up WAY TOO EARLY in Fort Meyers, I noticed that the moon was full as well.  As we were climbing out over southern Florida, I paid close attention to the moon as we chased it towards Colorado.  With the full moon in front of me and the rising sun behind me, I thought about the forces at work on us here on planet Earth.

The Earth is composed of approximately 70% water.  The average human body is composed of a little over 60% water.  If the moon can pull on the oceans causing the tides to rise and fall, what effect would they have on the human body?  It is a well documented phenomenom of individuals who work the night shift, such as police officers and hospital employees, to notice that abnormal activity takes an upswing on days that the moon is full.  However, the tides rise and fall regardless of what phase the moon is in.  I feel the need to investigate this further, but I am having some difficulty.  Living in Colorado, I am fairly landlocked and away from the ocean.  Using GooglEarth, the closest ocean at my longitude is La Playa Dorada, located a short distance from La Manzanilla, Jalisco, Mexico.  I am having a hard time finding tidal schedules, but will work my best to figure out when high and low tide occurs, and see if I can determine any difference at those times of the day.  I would find it hard to believe that the moon wouldn’t have some influence upon us as human beings if it can influence all of the oceans of the planet.

In other news, I have been getting frustrated on the forums as of late.  I haven’t thought about quitting like others have, but found the hypocrisy of some of our members a bit unsettling.  A certain user has been really bothering me since he started posting on the forum site, and I was at a loss for why until recently.  Just like Darth Rage, a user who had their account deactivated for being “unreasonable”, this user has done the same in his posts.  If he wanted to discuss something, he could easily do so and there would be a good and whole-hearted discussion.  But his posts sting like venemous bile, the hate clearly evident, and it is hard to discuss something when the other is totally unresponsive to any logic you put their way.  Ironically, in a post about free speech, I was chastized for saying that his posts were unrealistic and filled with hate.  I mean, really, if he has the right of speech to post his opinion, I should have my right to give my opinion on him and the subject.  It would appear that some don’t see it this way, though.  I don’t want to censor anybody, but their right to free speech ends when it impedes upon my own civil rights.

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I had no internet access yesterday, so I apologize up front for being behind schedule on my holocron.

 I almost feel embarassed to mention this, because I feel like I am advancing too quickly, but if you were to ask me today what the meaning of life was, I believe I would be able to tell you.  I know it sounds ridiculous as many spend their whole life searching for the meaning, but I feel I have found it.  An interesting side-note is that I think it is all highly individualistic and interpretive, so my interpretation of the meaning of life is going to be different from anybody elses.  We may be similar, but I think we all have our own little niche.  Right now I find it composes many little things, and I am trying to find one word that would serve as an all-encompassing definition.  I am also trying to figure out how to live this life as I see it.  It will require further thought, but I do believe I am finding the one true path I have been looking for.

Other than that, I think I have upset someone at Lucasfilm as they have stopped responding to my letters.  I want to continue with my project, and would have liked to had some input and information from LFL regarding my project, but I feel I have conducted enough research to continue on without their assistance.  I know it sounds funny, but I guess I WILL mention GL in my area of thanks and acknowledgements, much to the chagrin of the legal department at LFL, as they have not provided me with the request to not do so.

Life is so busy now, I want to keep my progress going but am finding it hard to get 30 minutes alone in a day sometimes, even if I split it up into small and manageable chunks.  That will be my priority in the coming weeks, ensuring I maintain my schedule and progress.

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What a difference a day makes.  After I made my last blog post, my life took a one-day trip through hell.  I won’t go into the specifics, but needless to say if I had lived in medievil times, there would have been beheadings at my castle.  I feel fortunate that I was able to keep it under control enough that the local constable didn’t have to visit my house.

 While not back to the way I was feeling last week in my connectivity with the Force, I am feeling better than I was that eventful day.  I almost feel like it was some sort of test that I failed miserably.  But I didn’t do as bad as I would have a few months earlier.  Baby steps, I have to continually remind myself.

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