Jedi Archive
Thread: Jedi & The Force
The Living Force:
You may have heard these words spoken recently: "Be aware of the living Force". Confusing, yes? While the Force is the power within all of us, and is what guides us day to day, you must not forget the living Force. No, there are not two seperate "Forces". This is merely a way to better explain it.
Life is all around us. The trees, the birds, the river. They are all connected to one another, and to you. You must open yourself to them, and feel life around you. Some time, go outside and look at a tree. Close your eyes and become aware of the tree. Feel it swaying in the wind and listen to its sounds. Open your eyes. Look at the tree. What does it remind you of? If you like, contact me and tell me when you've done this.
Many think that humans are superior to nature. Do you believe this? Has the thunder ever frightened you when it was close? Have you heard stories of the terror people feel during an earthquake? Have you experienced it yourself? If you have, you understand what it is to be humble.
Never forget the living Force. If you do not rise above it, then you will be one with it.
Obi-Wan Kenobi: "Master Yoda said I should be mindful of the future." Qui-Gon Jinn: "But not at the expense of the present. Be mindful of the living Force, my young Padawan."
That is the key. HERE and NOW.
Streen
The Jedi Creed
"The ancient Jedi Masters knew that Jedi training must proceed at a slow pace. Too much power gathered too quickly can corrupt even the most selfless and devout Jedi apprentice. A Jedi student must be properly humble in his powers, and mature enough to embrace the tremendous responsibility that comes with wielding the Force. A student impatient with the slow pace of the tutorship, a gifted student eager to dispense with 'pointless excercises' and embrace the true power of the Force misses the entire point of being a Jedi. The Jedi does not crave power, but seeks to serve others, without the expectation of becoming 'great in the Force'. The true Jedi is cautious, and reluctant to learn too much too quickly. Overeager students run a fearful risk of opening themselves up to the temptations of taking the deceptively easy path of the Dark Side." - Mitth'raw'nurida
Patience is one of the most important values of a Jedi. I can't stress this enough. As Mitth said above, becoming a Jedi is not about becoming "great in the Force". An apprentice cannot rush through his training in order to learn how to levitate things, or to influence others with the Force. He must first understand the Force. The better the understanding a Jedi has of the Force, the better the Jedi.
Many apprentices have been foolish enough to think that they could embrace both sides of the Force, and not be consumed by the Dark Side. Among them were Kyp Durron, and Ulic Qel-Droma. They both thought they could use the Sith knowledge for good. Both were mistaken. The two sides of the Force are clearly separated. To use the Dark Side of the Force would be to become controlled by it. Very few were strong enough to be released from its iron grip.
Death is an unfortunate and tragic aspect of being a Jedi. A Jedi is sometimes forced to use his abilities to kill. One must always remember that killing is wrong, but in the defense of another's life, it is in some way justified. Now, you may ask yourself... who is to judge whose life is more important than another's? This I cannot answer. One might say that one who does evil could be killed in the defense of one who is good. However, does a Jedi not practice forgiveness? Never forget, that the death of another by your hands leaves a stain on your soul that is never wiped clean. It is indeed a complicated matter. One which you must discover on your own. You may say that I've already explained it, so what is there to discover? No... my words have little ability to explain such things. You must experience them yourself.
"Evil ones can harness the Force to their will - and, by doing so, lose something of their humanity, becoming virtual avatars to the Dark Side of the Force. For the Master of the Dark Side, as for a Master of the Light, it cannot be said whether one controls the Force or the Force the Master. To ask which is the actor and which the acted upon is a question of no meaning. It was inevitable that some would use the Force to slake their base lust for wealth and power. The Dark Side is easy and seductive; the first successes brought thirst for more. These evil ones brought the great Jedi low, hunting down and killing all of their ancient order. All - or almost all.
Time must be used wisely. Patience must be attained for the Jedi to progress along the path to the light. Every Jedi progresses at his own pace, regardless of the pace of the people around him. Some take years. Some take months. However, to gather knowledge quickly and easily would be to court the dark side of the Force. In time, knowledge would then be forgotten, and the Jedi would be lost. A Jedi who increases his strength, and his knowledge in the Force too qiuckly, even with good intentions, is heading down the path to destruction.
A true Jedi is selfless. He does not pride himself in his achievements, nor does he take credit for assistance he has given, nor does he ask for anything in return. Therefore, he who is selfless, can achieve enlightenment.
A Jedi does not take advantage of chances to show off his abilites. He only uses the Force when necesary. If a friend was injured, and you were far from civilization, in the forest for instance, what would you do?
Happiness requires the freedom to choose, and the ability to attain.
Good is seen as cooperative and empowering.
Evil is seen as opposing and opressing.
Jedi seek a mean harmony by way of empowering others to help individuals attain individual harmony, and by aiding communication to help ensure that individual happiness' do not clash when one method of attaining or one piece of happiness itself does not oppose (2) or oppress one another.
Jedi seek to thwart evil directly by opposing and/or converting participants. They see this as a necessary to protect their investment in mean harmony.
Evil is identified in a participant when items of disharmony are seen -- items like the specific denial of another's happiness or path to happiness for it's own sake.
A structure is seen as evil when it is seen to continually act on behalf of a non-mean desire for happiness. The Empire is seen as an evil structure because it is seen to deny or make unreasonably difficult a majoriy of people's attempts for personal or small-group, or mean, happiness.
Long-term goals for mean happiness with methods which require short-term mean unhappiness are considered dark, and are debated before, during and after the fact to question the morality of the decision. To further complecate, mean-moreality may be redefined before the benedfits of such a long-term goal are realised.
If a person suddenly has dictatorship thrust upon them, and Harmony is their goal, then they must act towards two immidiate goals: (1) Act to thwart evil (2) Act to thwart challenges to #1.. Evil must be identified and converted or opposed. Countermeasures must be designed to oppose attempts by evil to seize dictatorship.
Constant vigilance, even eternal vigilance would be required to continuously poll mean moreality and thwart evil.
The trap is that by attaining confidance in the hearts of man, one acts to plan against evil by assuming other sources of similar power. This cycle may continue until power itself is seen as a threat. ** Therefore, use of dictatorship to promote Harmony must remain active only by 'thwarting' evil towards continuously-polled 'mean happiness', and promoting communication and understanding between participants. This is fair equilibrium. This is Jedi Harmony.
- By the fact that Jedi exist and desire to be active, it is obvious that their Harmony has not been attained. Perhaps it is not a natural eventuality.
- Communication also acts to stabilize collections of people, by coordinating them such that their attempts at mean or small-group happiness do not conflict.
The Sith were lost in a cycle of attaining power because of their fear of losing their personal abilities to obtain self-happiness. If one acts to obtain limited dictatorship over one's life, then one would look to others for signs of their power clashing or potentially clashing. Because they would seek to remove challenges to their power, they saw others as competition.
Ultimately, they became trapped in a circle of fear of 'competition for power', or the fear that conflicting desires would have them lose their own personal power. That fear became reality, and conflict, became reality. Sith, Jedi and other forces turned on them because they saw them as a threat.
In life you may have noticed that seldom are things truly 'black and white' -- life is much more complex than this simple formula. The shades of grey between the two extremes are many and varied. It can be difficult at times to distinguish between what is 'light' and what is 'dark.'
For the purposes of fiction, however, we simplify a great deal. Lucas has (as usual) painted a picture of the Jedi and the Sith with fairly large brushstrokes, but there are some telling points he makes.
LIGHT = serving the forces of Good. Good is still a relative term, however, especially in the Star Wars storyarc. When we begin (at Episode 1) we see the Light as serving forces of Order, and the Dark as serving the forces of Chaos. By the time we get to Episode 4, however, the roles have reversed. The forces of Order are now represented by the Sith-- Lord Vader and Emperor Palpatine. So how do we define Light, if we don't define it as serving the forces of Order?
Put simply, the opposites of Dark and Light are best represented in SW by those who display the highest degrees of Greed and Compassion, respectively. Greed motivates the Sith-- selfishness, self-aggrandizement, taking without thought of giving back, using people unfairly, all to achieve a private goal and dominance. Others are seen in a rather sociopathic way, as either a useful tool toward achieving the ends, or as the 'enemy.' Compassion motivates the Jedi-- helping without thought of reward, and keeping the peace even if it means sacrificing one's own life.
Now the fact of the matter is, the Force itself does not take sides. That's right, the Force doesn't care about Light and Dark, greed and compassion. It does not attribute good or bad to anything... it is simply the Force, and there is grave danger in attributing any anthropomorphic quality to it. Even saying that one 'serves the greater good' can lead to supporting the Emperor's plan. After all, the Sith serve the greater good in their own way, establishing Order at the behest of the Emperor, running a really 'tight ship' in terms of government, industry, technology and the like. Ordinary people might look at this and say, 'yes, this is Good. the world is a better place with a tight government that doesn't tolerate law-breaking.' Just as the Republic of old did, so too the Empire (in Episodes 4 through 6) served the masses. So chaos and order are not distinctly 'good' or 'bad'.
If the Force 'cares' about anything at all, it 'cares' about balance. Thus the struggle for power by both sides all throughout history, a struggle we see in the world around us, and in our own lives every day.
If this seems like a strangely cold and objective way of looking at the Force, well, it is. In Lucas' universe, there is no monotheistic deity who presides over the struggle. There is only the Force-- an otherwise-unnamed and faceless 'energy' if you will, moving through the galaxy and holding it all together. I liken it to the tao, and there is an old saying, "The tao that can be named is not the true tao."
LIGHT= Compassion, selflessness DARK= Greed, selfishness
A simple equation. There are other pairs of opposites you can insert and not lose the validity of the equation itself. But what about the Grey?
Traditionally, a Jedi in the old Republic serves the Council, and the Jedi Order at large. They follow a strict Code, some of which we are familiar with through the novelizations of the SW movies.
A Sith serves himself, or his Master (eg, Darth Sidious). He generally has no thought of serving the larger whole nor does he think about the 'other' as someone to put before himself. Even his service to a Master is strictly selfish, a desire to increase his own knowledge and power, at whoever's expense it becomes necessary to do so.
II: THE GREY
A GREY JEDI however, primarily serves the Force.
A Grey Jedi is more interested in balance, just like the Force.
A Grey Jedi does not eschew using 'Dark' powers to achieve the greater good. In fact, a Grey Jedi might not even see things in terms of Light or Dark, though it's hard to imagine having that mindset in the midst of the Jedi Temple. (Difficult, but not impossible.)
To a Grey Jedi, the Republic, and the Jedi Council, are secondary to serving the Force.
When it comes down to either doing the bidding of the Force, or doing the bidding of the Council, there is no question-- "I shall do what I must" to serve the Force, even if it means going against what the Council wishes, even if it means using the Dark Side, even if it means going to extremes that would otherwise be considered inappropriate for a Jedi.
Being Grey is, perhaps, a reversion to a previous state of things. According to the sources we have, the Jedi were once an order of philosophical monks. Thus they initially devoted their lives entirely to the study of the Force, heeding the Force before anything else. Whereas the Jedi of late Republic times had become mired in politics. Naturally, that created an atmosphere where serving the Force was of secondary importance to the duties of keeping the peace and meting out justice-- serving the Republic.
In Real Life, we see much the same phenomenon in most schools of organized spirituality. Things become heirarchical and the spirit of the original philosophy ossifies through distinterest and even, sometimes, disuse. Ultimately, no matter how long one has spent under its care and protection, if one is to truly investigate and listen to the calling of the Force one begins to flirt with disobedience to the Mother Sect (whatever it happens to be).
It's not the same thing as turning one's back on the teaching (as with the Sith) nor blind obedience to its interpretations (as with the Jedi). The Grey find themselves instead questioning the right of other beings to dictate the will of the Force for them.
One might even call the Grey a Reformist movement.
"There is no Light or Dark side of the Force. As servants of the Force, we draw strength from the delicate balance between what we know and what cannot be known, or described, or defined-- between the Force, and our training. Remember that despite the focus we give it here at the Temple, our training must always be subservient to the will of the Force.
"The dark side does exist within us, not outside us. The battle is always with ourselves. Yet I cannot overstress this simple fact : we cannot be who we are without a thorough acquaintance with the dark side. We speak here not of mere knowledge that the dark side exists within us, but intimate knowledge of how it moves within us.
"What is the dark side? What are its contours, its patterns? Most of us are well acquainted with the demonstrations our creche masters give us, and later still, when we become Padawans, one of the most important duties a Master faces is teaching us the meaning and essence of being a Jedi, of serving the weak, the war-torn, the victims, rather than capitulating to our own selfish desires, surrendering to our dark sides. The key to such a lesson is the demonstration that doing so is denial of the higher nature of all sentient beings.
"Yet of all sentients, it is easiest for the Jedi to succumb to self delusion, and turn, by degrees, to the dark side. Easier by far for those acquainted with the techniques of using the Force.
"Thus we have a Code.
"At this point we come to understand that without the Code, the predation that others perform, we ourselves would soon commit. The Jedi Code is designed to help save you from yourself, first and foremost.
"Yet beware. The Code is secondary to the Force, created as protection from temptation, not as a substitute for listening to the will of the Force. How deeply do you listen? When your mind is silent, and your Master is away, how do you answer its call? The way of the Jedi demands that you examine your motives, constantly. When you do, how honest are your answers?
"Remember, we are not perfect, we do not hold Truth in an unbreakable, unshakeable, unchanging grasp. If you fail, you get back up and begin again. This is how you learn. This is the ultimate Padawan Trial. This trial is not given us by Council, or Master. This trial never ends."
So much speculation has gone on surrounding the prophecy of the Chosen One that I thought I would share my own ideas on the matter.
It seems to me that saying Anakin will bring 'balance to the Force' is about as specific as saying 'storms will bring rain.' There's nothing there to shed light on what balance looks like. In fact it seems plausible that having the Sith run roughshod over the galaxy for a few years, eliminating the Jedi on the way, is a type of 'balance' --after all, the Jedi ran roughshod over the galaxy for thousands and thousands (and thousands!) of years, eliminating the Sith along the way. t.i.t for tat.
An even more pointed question, what happens after the Sith are defeated again?
What we see through EU literature is that Luke begins a Jedi Academy, but nobody (in the first generation, at least) really ever 'graduates' from it. They all acquire refined Force abilities, but none of them establishes the infrastructure necessary to carry on the tradition of the Jedi the way it was during Republic times. There is no central 'Temple', no central authority, unless you count Luke (who is wonderful and all, but he's no Jedi Council).
Still, the teachings of Luke and Ben and Yoda will, it seems, get carried down through the next generation of Jedi, and so on. It will be a new tradition, a different tradition than the one that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were familiar with. And it will be more balanced, less elitist, less political, and more focused on the Force itself.
Perhaps it will be Grey.
Message Edited by Ameno on 03-11-2004 09:57 PM
Thank you for all the compliments. 
Unfortunately after an hour it'llbe bumped down and lost in the ocean of spam. 
