[Essay] Of Dao, Qi, the Force, and religious wars

One of my periodic Wiki Walks through the amazing Wookieepedia has led me to consider the many similarities between the concept of the Force in Star Wars (and Jedi and Sith views on it) and many philosophies and religions of Eastern Asia. Now, it is no secret that George Lucas drew heavily from the Chinese concepts of qi and dao[1] and from the Japanese swordfighting martial art of Kendō, and many have already pointed out the similarities between the old Jedi Order and Buddhist monks or between dao and the Force as concepts. Many interesting articles on the matter already exist on the internet; I would like however to try to further analyse the differences between the two, and to share a couple of reflections of mine on the subject.

Image taken from http://www.coffeewithkenobi.com/the-dao-of-star-wars-a-guest-blog-by-joshua-whitson/

In dao, the opposing principles of Yin and Yang aren’t given any ethical connotation of “good” and “evil”: each implies the other (in its symbol, the black portion contains a single white dot and vice versa), and both are necessary. In the Star Wars films, however, the Light Side and the Dark Side are clearly principles of Good and Evil, in a manner which may remind of Manichean or Zoroastrian ideas. Followers of the Dark Side see the Force as a means to an end, their own power and fulfilment («Through passion, I gain strength / Through strength, I gain power / Through power, I gain victory / Through victory, my chains are broken»[2]), while followers of the Light Side consider the Force its own end, and seek greater knowledge and inner emotional detachment in order to guide the Galaxy to peace. Indeed, most followers of the Light Side refer to it simply as “The Force”, and consider the Dark Side something entirely different: in this view, the Light Side is merely the Force’s natural state, a naturally flowing soothing river, and the Dark Side is its corrupted form, a burning fire of pure power, and keeping “balance” in the Force simply means eradicating the Dark Side. This is the most common view in the old Jedi Order, backed by the fact that its precursors did discover the Dark Side long after discovering the Force itself, and may be more akin to Buddhism than Daoism: avoidance of selfishness, extremisms, passion, personal possessions, and worldly cravings (taṇhā), while leading a monk-like life of compassion towards every living being in order to stop suffering (dukkha) and break out of the karmic cycle of death and rebirth (saṃsāra). The two philosophies are very far from being the same thing, of course, but some similarities do appear. 

However, this view was not universal: some, like Darth Krayt and perhaps Darth Plagueis, treat the two sides as semi-sentient entities with purposeful designs, each using their wielders as tools, despite being parts of a whole. In some Expanded Universe stories there are planets and races that are described as being naturally rich with the Dark Side (i.e. the Masassi, the Rakata, the original Sith), but even parts of the canon material seem to be close to this interpretation. Yoda and Luke fight and reject the "dark side" within themselves as if it were an enemy actively trying to subdue them, the "temptation of a devil", but they do not consider it a part that needs to exist for there to be balance. This view may be more similar to Zoroastrian or even Christian concepts.

Others, like the followers of the Unifying Force (including Darth Sidious), the followers of the unorthodox Potentium view, the Gray Jedi (like Jolee Bindo), and some members of the New Jedi Order (like Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade), view the Force as a neutral power that takes no sides: the potential for Dark Side and Light Side lay in the users, not in the Force itself. Hence why Jedi like Jolee Bindo and Kyle Katarn had no qualms about using Force powers traditionally associated with the Dark Side, and Mace Windu used an aggressive lightsaber style many deemed too close to the Dark Side, as they believed that only the intent of the user mattered. Some powers just happen to be of more use to, shall we say, "the light", while others were more frequently of use to "the dark". Despite some aspects of the Living Force view resembling Daoist thought[3], this might be the interpretation that gets closer to that of dao: an all-encompassing lifeforce that simply is, with no intent or ethic.

«The capacity for good or evil, like the Force itself, is in all living creatures. And belonging to the Jedi Order, or the Sith, or any group, won't change who you are at your core.»

In my opinion, the most comprehensive, convincing, and interesting interpretation of the Force lies just between the concepts of dao and qi: an all-encompassing energy that exists in and between every living and non-living thing in the universe, and that can be manipulated by individuals with varying degrees of prowess to cause many different effects for many different purposes (much like qi or ki or prana); that also exists as an all-encompassing non-sentient essence of the universe itself, the deepest nature of the Galaxy, that naturally moves towards its own balance and harmony; with no ethically distinct sides, or perhaps with the Dark and Light Side merely representing two different principles much like yin and yang (passion and compassion, life and intelligence, conflict and peace, creation and stability) that gain an ethical connotation only through the intent of their users.

How to explain, then, the countless conflicts between Jedi and Sith, Light and Dark, religious wars that have scarred the Galaxy for over 30.000 years? Perhaps this is, again, but the natural way in which the Force moves towards balance, as the wind naturally blows between a high air pressure area and a low air pressure area: whenever there is an umbalance in the Force, caused by the actions of Force users trying to force their will upon the universe, war is the physical effect of this natural movement towards a state of equilibrium. This is, again, pretty close to Daoist views. In my opinion, there is no reason to believe that the wars between Light Side and Dark Side followers are proof of the two sides actually being distinct entities with distinct intentions. 

The Force Wars, which took place over 25,000 years before the Battle of Yavin, were the first conflict between Light Side and Dark Side followers. Image taken from Wookieepedia.

After all, no religious war is ever truly only about religion: a religion isn’t something as simple as ticking the box of whichever god(s) one chooses to worship, and it is quite childish to believe so. Religion is the symbol and spearhead of a society’s (or an individual's) whole system of beliefs in the fields of ethics, human rights, philosophy, ecology, economy, history, science, progress, interests, culture, and so on; therefore a religious war is a clash between ways of life, ways of seeing and interpreting the universe, ways of deciding how civilisation should progress. A religious war is but one of the many, many ways humans display their arrogance and presumptuousness in identifying those who are similar to them, identifying who are “the others”, and believing that their way and only their way is right, sensible, rational, and ethical. Paradoxically, it’s the same arrogance and presumptuousness so proudly displayed by a very large part of the internet atheist community, and I find it so ironical that they don’t seem to realise how much their contempt for religion makes them similar to the religious extremists that they so despise, but that’s a rant for another time.

The difficulty one finds in pinning down any one real-world philosophy or religion as the equivalent of any single view of the Force, is testimony of both the immense potential for historical and philosophical depth in the Star Wars universe (a potential that is, in my opinion, unmatched by any fictional universe in modern history, save maybe for Tolkien’s Arda), and the sheer amount of works and authors that have tried to expand its spiritual aspect much beyond what little had transpired in the films. Even at the cost of producing pieces of fiction that contradict both each other and George Lucas’s original (and mostly unexpressed) vision.

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[1] I’m using the Pinyin transliteration system for Chinese terms, therefore “dao” is to be pronounced with a [t] (voiceless unaspirated alveolar occlusive) despite the use of the graph “d”, and "qi" is to be pronounced with a [tɕʰ] (aspirated voiceless alveo-palatal affricate).

[2] Code of the Sith, as first appeared in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic; in-universe, it was written by Sorzus Syn in 6900 BBY. Conflict, the opposite of peace, is seen as a source of progress. One might note that some of the views expressed by the Sith throughout the ages are not too dissimilar from LaVeyan Satanism, and others bear a striking resemblance to principles contained in Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

[3] As far as I know, no orthodox view of the Force among the Jedi or Sith embraces the concept of wu wei (non-action or non-effort) that is so fundamental in Daoism: acting without forcing one’s will upon the universe and its natural course, but instead acting in accordance with its natural harmony. It’s the well-known concept of “being like water”: when one’s actions are in complete harmony with the way of things, they will come naturally and effortlessly). All Jedi taught instead that it was their duty to use the Force to protect others. However, the believers of the Potentium thought that the Dark Side was a “perversion” of the Force twisted by the selfish will of its users, and that the Jedi were not needed to fight evil as long as every action was conducted with moral intent; despite its ethical connotation, this view is closer to wu wei.