Fallacy of the Light #1

This will be a multi-lecture thread of all the different fallacies of the Light side as they come along. All discussion points will be in quote bubbles such as this and are to be talked about in the Sith Discussion forum and/or in one's Holocron.

Fallacy of the Light #1

By: Darth EshBa'al




One issue that I have with the Light Side is their tendency to ignore key aspects of being human. Rather than learn to overcome something, they tend to ignore their problems or find some way in which to sweep them under the rug and pretend as though they never existed in the first place. Whether it be a serious problem or something small…to deny things such as human emotions and etc. is to deprive oneself from a learning experience. Spiritual growth is all about stand and falling, making progress both forward and even backwards at times.
We are not always meant to succeed at something on the first try…that is just the trial which is life. Sometimes I can forgive someone wanting to get rid of negative emotions. They are not pleasant, and, the answer to dealing with said-emotions is not always apparent right away. Sometimes sweeping them under the rug so that you might vacuum them up later is essential. But, the fallacy of Light-Side thinking really struck a nerve with me on a particular day.

Jax is one of my Jedi Masters/Instructors. She runs the Institute of Jedi-Realist Studies. She more or less inherited the site from the original trio of Founders and has built upon it since. I have always admired IJRS for their very college-like structure, their planned curriculum, and just how welcoming and easy they make an introduction to Force-using. Unlike TOTJO that seems to point their finger in your face and say “No! You must not think that way!”, IJRS tends to ask questions on top of questions to not only challenge the student, but to keep it as a learning experience for the Faculty as well.
While Jax is usually open-minded, she was never too fond of the idea of Light-side teachings mixing with teachings from Dark-siders. Just like a vast majority of Force-users which have chosen either one end or the other without question, she says the middle grounds of The Force cause stagnation and a limitation on spiritual growth. While I have never gotten her to see eye-to-eye with me on the benefits of being able to float through the spectrum, she did pose an interesting question/statement to me in which I had to battle her.

JAX: Interesting that you spend so much time around darksiders given that your father is one. Have you ever looked into that? Our parents create our primary pathways for functioning with the world (even when we try to do the opposite) clearing that stuff clears away a ton of limitation.

LARKEN: I am in both Light and Dark and in no way like my father. I'm much more Light than other Darksiders. Still, I hang around them because there is much to learn from an enemy. Plus, I just find them interesting.

JAX: You misunderstand. I didn't say or imply you are like your father. Simply that you spend a lot of time among people with similar traits of manipulation. Subconsciously to understand them would be to understand your father

LARKEN: Hm. I kind of see your point. They do say a girls first love is her Father...but you're right, I do hang around people who are very similar (especially Taz), in an attempt to fully understand their being.

JAX: So what if you don't need to understand in order to see them for who they are? Freedom from needing to understand is a major freedom

LARKEN: I see who they are. I CHOOSE to have and want understanding.
To understand is to have knowledge...to have knowledge of both friend and foe is power. I need not freedom. I seek the power to know and therefore overcome anything and everything. Not to be rid of it or 'free' from it.

JAX: No you need awareness. Knowledge and understanding are not as powerful or useful as awareness. They are the substitutes we use bc we spend so much time in unawareness

LARKEN: But why can't someone be both aware and have understanding? I know what these people are I know what they do and usually why. So therefore I am fully aware of their nature but choose to stay by them anyways for the purpose of having full understanding. To walk away from something, to toss it away and be rid of it is to deprive oneself of important lessons and learning opportunities.

JAX: Ok in the fiction when were the jedi most jedi? When they tapped into the force for awareness. Not when they read abook
Knowledge and understanding are cognitive. They are limited to the mind's capabilities. Awareness is in the being, with no limitations

LARKEN: Again, one can have awareness and still choose understanding. There are middle grounds in everything...and those were Jedi. I am not just limited to the aspects if just Ashla or just Bogan but can choose to float between both because I am on my own personal path.

JAX: With awareness understanding is irrelevant
You can choose awareness or not. But coming to anything from the cognitive mind will not lead to awareness

LARKEN: I disagree.
But...it's your opinion and for your path this idea works for you.
For my path, it is different.

JAX: You haven't really experienced awareness to tell the difference
It's not about light or dark

LARKEN: I know this.

JAX: Awareness comes in many ways

LARKEN: But usually Light and Dark tend to see the concept of 'understanding' differently. So just as awareness has many forms, so can understanding be so much more than what it seems.

JAX: If it comes from the mind it is inherently limited

LARKEN: ...people do not fully utilize their entire mind, so, it would seem limited. And true, thought is eventually limited by the human body. But you must utilize all parts, limited and non to have full control, to know 'freedom' in all forms...and even to have understanding...and thus understand that 'understanding' is more powerful and useful than what people give it credit for.

JAX: Our being is capable of everything. Awareness is in the force.

LARKEN: If our being is capable of everything, then it is not limited.

JAX: Being is not mind
Being is energy
Spirit
Force

LARKEN: Being is all...being is physical, mental, emotional, even spiritual. Being is everything that makes up the self and that includes the mind.

JAX: No
Your being is not your body
Your body exists in the being but your being exists without body and mind

LARKEN: But the body is still there though. In the being, which means the being can do everything, and in that everything there is the body. Which means it is there to be utilized, it is there to learn from and to use...the body and mind are limited but in a limitless 'being' and would not exist were it not necessary in some way.
Therefore it is not irrelevant, not the mind nor its processes such as understanding.

JAX:
Ummm sure it's to be used but the mind is never the source of awareness
The body has immense awareness of it's own
But not the mind

LARKEN: Okay...but as I said before one can have both awareness AND understanding. I never said the mind was the source of awareness it was you that said such things as understanding were irrelevant when one had awareness. And again, the mind is meant to be used and exists in the limitless being for a reason and therefore is not irrelevant as you stated before.
Though it is technically limited.

JAX: Ok
I get it now. Thanks
Gotta go. Time for a live stream

LARKEN:Have fun.

I often pin Jedi as the ‘dreamers’ for this very reason.

They are so concerned with leaving their skins so that they may exist only in a space where nothing affects them, nothing can touch them, they just ‘are’. It is a place where they are free to roam with no expectations and no responsibility. She made it sound as though a Jedi was all the time meditating on The Force, and while they are always supposed to be connected with it, the one thing she missed is that the Jedi in fiction take ACTION (most of the time, though this also has proven to be an issue at times).

They went out and saw the world with their own eyes, they fought to keep peace in the galaxy, and their members died taking the actions that they thought were morally just. They knew that the body and mind were just as much an essential thing as ‘being’, because, without body and mind, they could not take the action to save lives and save the worlds which needed them the most.

It’s not a long lecture…but, it is something to think about. While one may not think of things like ‘understanding’ and ‘awareness’ as Light versus Dark, it really is. Darksiders are selfish, yes, but they are selfish in a way that they understand who and what they are. Spirituality is only part of what makes one a Darksider or what makes one a Sith (if you are a Force user). The rest is in body, mind, and emotion. It is in making yourself physically strong, obtaining knowledge because it too is a form of power.

As I said above in the conversation…all of our ‘self’…all of our human limitations are part of the everything which is ‘being’, meaning that there is nothing about you or I which is irreverent or non-essential.

Discussion Point(s):

Ponder over this, meditate on it. What is your ‘self’? What is your ‘being’…and find your own personal path and balance. Take a few days just to sit, relax, and meditate, to concentrate on what it is you want, crave, yearn for, and why. Find the balance…find the middle grounds in this world which is Light versus Dark, and make note of everything in which you saw and heard while in this relaxed state.