Nature of "the Force" (Light/Dark dicotomy)

At the beginning of the community there was a lot of struggle to try and reconcile this idea that "the Force" had both a light and dark side as outlined by the movies. Some came to a conclusion that these two were separate entities from one another, the same as God and Satan. Some looked towards the Yin-Yang symbolism to paint a picture of an all encompassing sentient or semi-sentient "force" which had two different internal energies you could draw from- one being the conscious to do good and the other to strive towards an almost primal stage.

Oddly enough, it was a look at the natural world that got some of the "old guard" considering whether or not there truly was a light and/or dark side to "the Force". After some internal searching, many of the "old guard" came to the conclusion that is neither light, dark or even various shades of grey. The Force simply exists, just as anything else does. They came to believe that these concepts of light and dark were facets of human society used to keep us in check and help everything operate more smoothly.

Today, we still have people that believe in the literal light and dark sides. And there is nothing wrong with that, as long as you can completely understand why you feel that way, and how it effects your life. Interestingly enough, how you believe on this can shape how you interact with "the Force".

So my challenge for this post, is for you to really look inside of yourself and ask "Well, where exactly do I stand on this subject? Why? And how does it effect my relationship with 'the Force' (if at all)?"

If you are willing to share your thoughts on it, I (and I'm sure others) would love to read it. But at the end of the day, this exercise is mostly for you. (I'll post my views at a later time, for now, I need food! lol)

Alllllyyy *affects, not effects.

And, as a member of the "New Guard" or somebody who joined the online community in 2005, I have this to say:

The Force is the connective tissue of our universe that allows for you and me to be able to talk and touch and communicate. The Force is, basically, the Tao that is so fondly described. It is the Universal Perspective (see my essays on this topic at ProjectJediBlog.com).

Now, with that out of the way, I'd like to show you this:

The tao symbol (google image searches all around) is represented as Light and Dark with the spots in the opposing halves.

What does this mean?

It means that Light and Dark are different and the same. The world runs on workable paradoxes.

the dots symbolize the "seed" of the other...light carries the seed of dark, dark carries the seed of light...both interconnected parts of the whole

Is that not what I said?

I see the nature of the Force as parasitic. Not in a Dark, Light, or sentient way. Still, I look at anything killing me as pretty bad.

There is spiritual energy, and there is life force energy.

It is because we have both we are alive.

Life force energy flows through and animates everything in this universe, spiritual energy gives it substance and existence.

When we die our life force energy goes back into the world, and our spiritual energy remains.

Having only one or the other isn't a living state.

So neither aspect is good or bad, both are necessary for life to exist.

I have it as a quite literal meaning, the Jedi path focuses on active connections and presence, a broader empowerment connecting to the environment and circumstance to wield greater knowledge of a situation to allow that focus to lead to wisdom.

Whilst the Sith path could focus on the unknown aspects of the self, looking into the darkness to understand more about yourself from places which are kept from you or where you do not journey. If you step outside yourself to get a better look at yourself as a path, then what you see might just be the redshift of your own existance - hence the red lightsabers LOL.

So for me there is no dichotomy, and the concept is an illusion created by the fictional world in the storyline. That is my opinion on your question Alethea, but I am still tempted by some concept of duality so its a WIP for sure!

Khaos wrote: I see the nature of the Force as parasitic. Not in a Dark, Light, or sentient way. Still, I look at anything killing me as pretty bad.

That was a bit cryptic, care to elaborate?

I'd like to throw in this idea, what if the dark side is the anti-force, not as absence of the force -it clearly isn't portrayed as that in the fiction/mythology. As a newcomer I still find it hard to see how the core depiction of the force in the films is irrelevant as some of you seem to claim. I'm not saying that it should be believed that Jedi in the fiction is the same as Jedi in real life (telekinesis etc) but as a mythology it is allegorical and symbolic: the dark force's lightning bolts can be seen as such. However the actual principles of good and evil portrayed in the mythological system are not just symbolic they are able to be the same when translated into real life, this is the same in all religions that I can think of.

As anti-force you could argue it being relative to anti-matter or dark matter (?) is to matter, or chaos is to order to use another philosophical duality.

I'm increasingly becoming drawn into a Mandolorian mythology and philosophy in my Jedi studies, they can be argued to represent an attempt to portray a neutrality or outside of the mythological war of dark and light -in the star wars mythology-. Interestingly the Mandalorian word for Sith is dar'jetii : "no longer Jedi".

Make of that what you will.

That was a bit cryptic, care to elaborate?

A parasitoid is an organism that spends a significant portion of its life history attached to or within a single host organism in a relationship that is in essence parasitic; unlike a true parasite, however, it ultimately sterilises or kills, and sometimes consumes, the host. Thus parasitoids are similar to typical parasites except in the more dire prognosis for the host.

Do you mean that we are parasites in the Force or that the Force feeds off of us?