What is the Light?
What does it mean to be an adherent of the Light?
A conversation that has happened in our hang-outs is an attempt to define the Light without reference to the Dark. Personally, I do not believe anything can be successfully defined without reference to the context within which it exists. All words function as a sort of exclusion: a word expresses what something is not as much as it describes what something is. To paraphrase Alvin Ward Gouldner: “Context is everything.”
Thus, when we discuss the Light, we automatically assume an understanding of what it is not, and its fundamental opposites: thus, the Light is not the Dark. We automatically exclude the Dark when we say Light. Thus, the Light cannot be defined without an understanding of what it is not. It cannot be described in a vacuum. With this simple issue of logic out the way though, we can now discuss what the Light is.
The Force is a word we use as Jedi to discuss the fundamental connection we have with all that is around us. The Macrocosm within which we exist, and which affects us as much as we effect it. It is the reflection of the Objective Reality that we all share: when something is done there is a reaction and consequence to it. As either metaphor or a literal interpretation of a shared spiritual energy: Jedi believe we are bound to each other through our actions, and that our actions are the foundation of our connections to others.
Yet, I fear this answer neglects a truth that speaks to the heart, to the mind, and the spirit. The Force is not something disparate from ourselves: we are part of it. The Force is a lived thing: it is both without and within us. As Jedi we learn to dissuade ourselves of the notion our actions and our thoughts can be removed from one another: that we may keep secret thoughts. What we believe, and what we value or do not value, is reflected in what we do and say. Thus, who we are, we look to reflect in how we live.
To reference Viktor Frankl and Logotherapy, and Humanist Therapy in general, the greatest happiness is the living of a life with meaning. The poet Goethe expressed the belief that true happiness is achieved by experiencing the happiness of others as your own. This is were we find the Light: it is to find meaning for your life, and through it to find and enjoy the lives of others. It is to recognise the gift of the universe that is your life and the life all things.
To quote the late Carl Sagan: “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of star stuff.”
Now, we must beware descending into metaphysical biology, because that is when we enter into the danger of Universal Energy Fields and creating a deist interpretation of the Force that is no different from panpsychism: the Universe as its own conscious entity. No, rather, I quote Carl Sagan to put the words of Allan Watts and Eckhart Tolle into perspective:
“Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies. We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.”
– Alan Watts
“You are not IN the universe, you ARE the universe, an intrinsic part of it. Ultimately you are not a person, but a focal point where the universe is becoming conscious of itself. What an amazing miracle.”
– Eckhart Tolle
That is ultimately the Light to a Jedi: this understanding that we are a part of the greater whole. That we exist is a spectacular thing, and because we exist, we have a potential. This is where the earlier talk of causality becomes relevant. Causality, in the context of being a Jedi in said universe,refers to the principle of cause and effect where intent and actions of an individual influence the future of that individual.
In applied terms: actions which are performed with a creative intent and with a growth mind-set, will lead to things being created and positive outcomes being achieved. However, if we act with destructive intent, or we allow our selves to be controlled by regressive thinking, then ultimately, we can only find destruction and failure. The Light is to seek creativity in all things, and if we work towards creative aims, then we can create for ourselves meaning and positive outcomes.
For a Jedi, the Light is this connection, and it gives us hope. The Light is remembering that so long as we are part of this whole that we can effect change, and so long as we can affect change we have meaning. It also reminds us that all actions have a value and can have a value: the smallest act of kindness matters. No good act is unimportant.