Bringing Balance to the Force: A Study of Jedi Philosophy

By Leanna Prince, H02

A forewarning: For the purposes of this post and the presentation, I will only be referring to the first six films and, possibly, the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated TV show and film. The Extended Universe shall be gleefully ignored because no one, including myself, has time to read up on 40+ years of content.

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Most people in this day and age know of Star Wars, even if they don't much about it. They know the Jedi are good, Darth Vader is bad, and maybe a few other details. I imagine not many people are very interested in any in-depth analyses of George Lucas's space opera, especially if it means considering that the Good Guys might not be as Good as they're presented to be. Unfortunately for those people, in-depth analysis of media I enjoy is one of my favorite things to do.

So! The Jedi, right? Generally accepted to be based in Eastern philosophies, especially Taoism, Buddhism, and Zoroastrianism (with a hint of the chivalry of Medieval knighthood thrown in to spice things up), the Old Jedi Order was devoted to harmony and balance in the universe. They believed that, to achieve this balance, the dark side of the Force must be destroyed. Which, given the Order’s philosophical origins, makes absolutely no sense. Taoism, the biggest influence on Jedi philosophy, is where the concept of yin and yang come from. Yin and yang are represented by the light and dark sides of the Force, and they are neither good nor evil, merely passive (yin) or active (yang). The light was never meant to be good, and the dark was never meant to be bad, but when the Sith – the group to which Darth Vader and other baddies belonged – fractured off of the Jedi Order, that’s what they came to represent. The Sith designed themselves to be the complete opposite of the Jedi, and you can see this by comparing the organizations’ codes:

Jedi Code	Code of the Sith
The There is no emotion, there is peace. There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. There is no passion, there is serenity. There is no chaos, there is harmony. There is no death, there is the Force.	Peace is a lie. There is only Passion. Through Passion I gain Strength. Through Strength I gain Power. Through Power I gain Victory. ThroughVictory my chains are Broken. The Force shall free me.

Of course, Zoroastrianism believes in the triumph of good and the eradication of evil, but it never claims to be a proponent of cosmic balance. Even if we completely ignore the paradox of the Jedi and the Sith gaining power from opposite sources (control of emotions for Jedi and the lack thereof for Sith) and the cognitive dissonance of the Jedi, a supposedly passive pacifistic organization, repeatedly turning to violence as a solution to their problems without appearance of remorse, there remains the issue of balance. Darkness cannot exist without light, and vice versa.

In comes the Gray Jedi. The Gray Jedi were a branch of the Jedi Order that broke off after the Sith. They take a more active role in maintaining the balance, observing often and intervening when necessary. Gray Jedi believe, as the Jedi and Sith did, that the Force had distinct light and dark sides; the difference is that they acknowledged that the two could not be separated, and that to truly be one with the Force, both sides must be mastered. Their code was as follows:

Flowing through all, there is balance.
There is no peace without a passion to create.
There is no passion without peace to guide.
Knowledge stagnates without the strength to act.
Power blinds without the serenity to see.
There is freedom in life.
There is purpose in death.
The Force is all things and I am the Force.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me.

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QUESTIONS:

1.     What are the three main philosophical influences of the Jedi?

2.     Name one pillar of the Jedi code.

3.     What are yin and yang? How do they tie into the Star Wars universe?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

·       What would your lightsaber color be?

·       Do you agree with the Jedi or the Sith? Both? Neither?

·       The Jedi also teach a doctrine of non-attachment to both people and possessions. Do you think this would help or hinder their cause? You can be hypothetical or go off evidence from Star Wars canon.