Jedi Archive
Thread: Jedi & The Force
In the movies, a Jedi named Obi-Wan Kenobi said the Force was an energy field which surrounds all living things...binding the galaxy together. Like the term Tao used in Taoism, or the universal Ki/Chi, the Force is a concept which can be seen in many forms, and in many ways. The Force is commonly seen an energy which connects all life as one, for it is a pure energy. Without the Force, there is no life. Because there is life, the Force exists.
Whether one may see the Force as a diety or the order of the universe doesn't make the Force any less or more true, in our opinion. It really depends on how you interpret it. The truth lies in the dedication and trust in the Force. The most basic piece of wisdom a Jedi or any of you might learn above any is to trust in the Force. By trusting in the Force, the Force will guide you, helping you through every obsticle and every turn.
You can travel a thousand miles away and still never find it—because it is already in you. Our journey is all about realizing it is with us already, right now, never leaving us if we heed to its call. Remember the Force is a guide. Use it to help guide you towards the golden path.
The Force:
Its power may seem beyond you at times, it may seem to be an impossible goal to become a Force Master, or even to simply touch this eatheral energy field that is so fabled.
However, we know that the force is all around us, Penetrating us and binding the Galaxy together, to quote Obi-wan Kenobi. In knowing this we realize that all of our actions are guided by the force, and like all things we can do; physically, mentally, or spiritually we must begin by taking those first steps.
Feeling the force has often been described as taking a leap of faith...what this means is simply to stop worrying about whether or not a technique will work...to stop worrying whether or not you will fall on the ice...to simply let go of all of ones inhabitions and take the plunge...
"You have taken your first step into a Larger world"
Here once again the Jedi Master, Obi-wan Kenobi, shows us the subtle lessons of the force. We all to often allow ourselves to simply ignore the subtle lessons of the force, simply allowing ourselves to look over the lessons behind the lessons, in search of a greater revelation. What we don't realize is like all things with the force, it is not a matter of looking outward for the answer, but looking within, the universe is not all external and scientifically explainable.
When seeking the guidance of the force one must know how to listen, how to quite the mind, the ambition, the hesitation. How to clear out the mental barriers and just be.
To live is an experience most people today never actually have after their childhood. We as Jedi do in fact have a duty to all others, but that duty will mean nothing if we cannot do anything to actually make it happen. Jedi must learn how to "Live" by first letting go of fear and hesitation, of ambition, and of all desires that are created externally. Not the obvious such as a nice house and a fancy car, but much more subtle things, like the desire to not allow oneself to change, to love...to not allow oneself to live for the fear of pain and disgrace. We cannot allow doubt in ourselves to cloud our judgement, we must have an anchor that is even more deeply embedded in ourselves than our fear, we must understand that a life lived shielded by fear is a life better left unlived...
We are protectors of the meek and defenders of the innocent
We live our lives guided by the will of the force
We accept failure as a greater lesson
We accept success as a cornerstone of the force's will
We are Jedi
And our Journey has now begun...
Shinobi
The Jedi Creed
Beware the Dark Side...
Pure rage and hate-filled aggression are the essence of the Dark Jedi. They are the children of the Dark Side. The Dark Jedi seem unbound by code or rule. They do as they wish in order to fulfill their dark desires for themselves or, in turn, for their masters. Fear, anger, and hate are what power the Dark Jedi. The Jedi themselves have a code, yet in fact, the Dark Jedi have a code of their own as well:
There is no peace, there is anger.
There is no fear, there is power.
There is no death, there is immortality.
There is no weakness, there is the Dark Side.
A Code only used by the strongest of the Jedi, the Darksiders. Their abilities and powers prove opposite of their counterparts, but without one, the other would cease to exist. For Millennia the Jedi have been the guardians of peace and justice until the reign of Palpatine. His plans proved as wise decisions. With the extermination of the Jedi, those who challenge the Dark Side of the Force have no chance to win such a conflict. Without the Force, one is weak and easily crushed. If there are less of those who are Force attuned, then those few are virtually superior. In order for the Jedi to be defeated, their powers must be stricken from them and then turned against them. Then the true nature of the Dark Side will once again shadow this galaxy, as it was meant to be.
...Lord Darth Scorn
I am the Heart of Darkness.
I know no fear,
But rather instill it in my enemies.
I am the destroyer of worlds.
I know the power of the Dark Side.
I am the fire of hate.
All the Universe bows before me.
I pledge myself to the Darkness.
For I have found true life,
In the death of the light.
The Focus of the Dark Side
Unlike the Light Side of the Force, which embraces the whole, the entire focus of the Dark Side is the self. The appeal of the Dark Side is its very destructiveness and its isolation. Those who seek power for selfish reasons find comfort in its narcissistic gaze. The Dark Side emphasizes aggrandizement of self to the exclusion of others. In this way, rage and anger are turned into sources of strength.
Many are attracted to the Dark Side because its selfish nature allows great and showy deeds. The ease with which power is summoned belies its danger, for anger and hatred consume the individual even as one dominates one's surroundings. Ultimately, the Dark Side rejects the very celestial nature of life itself. To the Jedi, the Force is not a part of their existence, it is their existence. To a student of the Dark Side, this is incomprehensible.
It is not uncommon for Dark Side students to go into the wilderness, much as their Light Side counterparts do. The crucial difference is that the Light Jedi goes into the wilderness to commune with the wild. The Dark Side follower goes to separate himself from the community of life. There, in isolation, a Dark Side follower can perfect his or her own oneness with the Dark Side, and revel in that corruption. Yet in the Dark Side are anger and hatred and isolation and... fear. That fear drives the Jedi to isolation, jealousy and desire to be the most powerful of all.
This very predatory nature sparks battles of dominance when several Dark Jedi or Dark Side Adepts gather. Sometimes these are violent confrontations, other times they involve subtle mind games or diplomatic discussions, but make no mistake, there will be some attempt to assert control over each other. The violent nature of the Dark Side often leads to betrayal and bloodshed.
Not only does this fratricidal tendency discourage long term cooperation among Adepts, it has also hindered the passing of knowledge. Whereas the Jedi and other servants of the Light Side have established great libraries and oral traditions to advance their work and educate succeeding generations, those of the Dark Side have few such institutions. Many never record their knowledge for fear it may aid an enemy. Others are too arrogant to allow others to learn from their mistakes.
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no death; there is the Force.
The Sith were an ancient race of insect-like humanoids, characterized by its dark, red skin, cranial horns, and long bony chins. There were several subspecies of Sith, each with its own place in their society. Some were slaves, other were warriors, and the highest caste of all were the magicians. They lived in a remote sector of the ancient galaxy, and were unknown to most until a group of Jedi Knights discovered their existence. The early Sith regarded the Dark Jedi as gods. The Force-sensitive Sith magicians proved to have control over the Dark Side of the Force, and the Jedi took many of their tomes and teachings back to study. They hoped to determine ways to avoid the Dark Side, but a group of Jedi found the allure of the Dark Side and the Sith teachings too powerful. They rose up against their Masters, but were not yet powerful enough to defeat them. The Dark Jedi were banished from the Old Republic, and chose to flee across the galaxy to the worlds of the true Sith. Over the millennia, the two groups intermingled, until very little pure Sith blood remained. One of the early Dark Lords of the Sith was Marka Ragnos, who was succeeded by Naga Sadow. Freedon Nadd was a later Dark Lord who was caught by the Jedi Knights on Onderon and entombed there. Nadd's spirit invaded the body and mind of Exar Kun, who eventually became a Dark Lord himself. They developed a rigid hierarchy of magicians and warriors, with the leadership of the brotherhood falling to the current Dark Lord of the Sith. The Sith wrote expansive volumes on the control and use of the Dark Side, and described incredible manifestations of power. Later, they were able to created amulets and weaponry that could assist the user in controlling the Dark Side. These devices amplified the Dark Side, making the user incredibly powerful. Much of the Sith lore was hidden on various worlds when the ancient Jedi Knights first sought to eradicate the Sith. Some was stored on Korriban, some on the moon of Yavin 4. Since that time, the term Sith has come to represent this ancient brotherhood which learned how to harness the Dark Side of the Force and twist it to perform many evil acts.
A new breed of Sith Lords was founded some 2,000 years before the Battle of Yavin by a rogue Jedi Knight who yearned to learn more of the Dark Side of the Force. Together with about 50 followers, this rogue fled the Old Republic and established his own Sith order. With galactic domination on their agenda, these new Sith Lords quickly became distrustful of each other and abusive of their dark side powers. In a short time, they had nearly wiped themselves out again. One Sith Lord remained, a man by the name of Darth Bane. He swore that the Sith would never again vanish from the galaxy, but also made certain that they never grew beyond their means. He established a rigid code by which there could only be a single Sith Lord and a single Sith apprentice. When the Lord finally expired, his current apprentice was promoted and allowed to take their own student. This pairing continued for the next several centuries until Darth Sidious rose to power as the Sith Lord. Sidious eventually took Darth Maul as his apprentice, and hoped to take control of the galaxy by bringing the Old Republic down from the inside. However, Maul was destroyed by Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Sidious’ plans were thwarted. Decades later, Emperor Palpatine established Darth Vader as the last Dark Lord through the rigorous training he gave Vader.
A Jedi student of Vodo-Siosk Baas on Dantooine, Exar Kun used Vodo's holocron to learn about the ancient Sith. Exar Kun didn't like the fact that Vodo, not to mention his fellow students Crado and Sylvar, were not human, and he continually goaded them. He nearly killed Sylvar during a lightsaber training exercise, and she clawed him on the right cheek. Vodo stopped the duel before someone was killed, and challenged Kun to a duel between Kun's skill with a lightsaber and Vodo's skill with a walking stick. Vodo nearly defeated Kun, but Kun snatched another lightsaber and attacked his Master. Vodo's stick was broken, and Kun's rage passed as he felt he was victorious. Exar Kun then left Dantooine to try and obtain the Sith artifacts that had been found on Onderon. He entered the tomb of Freedon Nadd and was controlled by Nadd's evil spirit. Nadd led Kun to Korriban, where Kun discovered a pair of Sith scrolls that tantalizingly led him further down the path to the Dark Side. Kun tried to resist, but Nadd nearly killed him before offering assistance. However, the assistance required Kun to give himself to the Dark Side. Kun chose to live, and was drawn into the Dark Side's power. Then, Nadd directed Kun to go to Yavin 4, where he should complete the work of Naga Sadow. On Yavin 4, Kun again tried to renounce Nadd's teachings, and was captured by the Massassi. They tried to sacrifice Kun in a blood ceremony, during which Nadd's spirit goaded him down the Dark path. Exar Kun called out to the Dark Side in anger, and a Sith amulet was drawn to his power. It fused to his arm, and he was suddenly endowed with the power of the Sith. He took control of the Massassi, and exterminated Nadd's spirit. As the months went by, Exar Kun found Naga Sadow's works and began to gain more and more Sith power. Once he felt that he was powerful enough, he went to the Empress Teta System to defeat Aleema and Satal Keto and claim his position as Sith lord. When he arrived, Keto had already been killed by Ulic Qel-Droma, so Kun tried to defeat him in battle. The ancient Sith masters were drawn to the pair's incredible Dark Side power, and halted the battle. They named Kun the Dark Lord of the Sith, and Qel-Droma his Apprentice. They went into hiding, and continued to gain power. Kun was able to lure several young Jedi Knights to his cause, including Oss Willum and Crado. On Yavin 4, Kun showed them the Sith holocron, which he destroyed in a display of power. The shards exploded outward, piercing the young Jedi and possessing them with Sith demons. When the time was right, they exploded into the galaxy as Sith warriors. Kun ordered his young disciples to exterminate their Jedi Masters in a fiendish pogrom. Thus, the Great Sith War was started. Kun and Qel-Droma's forces killed millions in their rampages. When Qel-Droma was captured and put to trial on Coruscant, Kun and Mandalore arrived to retrieve him. In a show of power, Kun put the entire court into suspended animation, killing the Old Republic's highest official and eventually murdering Master Vodo. Kun later raided Ossus, in an attempt to steal the ancient Jedi and Sith lore stored there. This effort was cut short when Aleema destroyed the Cron System, and Kun was forced to flee back to Yavin 4 to regain his strength. The war would have continued, but the end of the war was quickened when Qel-Droma was captured on Ossus by Master Thon. He was cut off from the Force by Nomi Sunrider, and betrayed Kun by providing the location of Kun's power - the temples on Yavin 4 - to the Jedi. The Jedi then met Exar Kun on the jungle moon, where Kun drew on the Massassi spirits in an effort to gain strength and make a last stand against the Jedi. Exar Kun was defeated by the Jedi, but only his body was destroyed. Kun consumed the Massassi in an effort to lock his spirit away in the temples on Yavin 4, where it remained until Luke Skywalker started training his new Jedi Knights there more than 4000 years later. Kun tried to control the emerging Jedi Knights, but his hold was tenuous. His first attempt at controlling one of them led to the death of Gantoris. Kyp Durron was his second attempt, but Kyp used Kun's power in an attempt to destroy the Empire. In a final battle with Luke's Jedi students, Kun was defeated by the combined strength of all the students. At his final death, Kun's former teacher Vodo Siosk-Baas appeared to claim him. Several months later, after escaping from Leonia Tavira and the Jensaarai, Luke Skywalker allowed Corran Horn to destroy Kun's statue and temple with a series of proton torpedoes, utterly wiping out the primary source of dark side energy on the moon.
I,Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole
It is a good book that shows a mans progression through the force.
Everything in the universe from dirt, humans, the sky, trees, and even space are all made of matter. Once matter is broken down to it's smallest parts we have positive and negative protons surronding a nucleus thus creating an atom. Everything in the universe is made from these tiny particles. Atoms are all pure energy, so hence all things are pure energy.
Energy never stops, it just tranfers itself from one form to the next depending on the conditions. We may not know where energy first came from, but we know it will never end.
Once you have excepted this idea into everyday life you will see everyone is a part of eachother and everything.Because of this we all exist as one being. Just like the body, it has arms, legs, hands, and feet completely differant parts with completely differant functions and responseabillities. Yet they are still part of a body.
By learning about your own self you are also learning about others, and other things, because we are one.
Force powers can be developed just by realizing what your seeing. A continueing flow of energy that you are a part of. Moving objects is simply the belief that one can. You just have to tap into everything at once, realizing the object your trying to move is a part of you, just like the hand and foot. Then it's a simple snapping your fingers. Reading minds is an art of just allowing yourself to be that person and allowing there thoughts in your mind, without judgement, and without your own views. Seeing the past is different, in order to see the past you must in your mind put yourself in that place, letting go of all other thoughts until you get a clear mental image. The first thing that pops inyour mind is what your seeking. However this is difficult, the key is to not let your own thoughts interfere. Your mind must be like a leaf in the wind following the will of the wind. Seeing the future is differant The future is everchangeing shaping itself by the will and descisions of people. So the best policy is to know that the future holds no securities and is only what we make it.