“The Force is everything, and everything is the Force,” Vergere had said, shortly before she died. “There is no dark side. The Force is one, eternal and indivisible. You need worry about no darkness save that in your own heart.” Vergere, New Jedi Order, book 17, Force Heretic pt 1.
Above is a quotation from one of the most fascinating characters from the entire Star Wars universe. A hardened survivalist and a philosopher of great moral ambiguity. Vergere was a fun character, whose philosophy was later fiddled with and ultimately removed from the plot because her ideology was too grey, too ambiguous, and too complicated, for the black-and-white moral simplicity of the Star Wars mythos.
This idea is part of a Force theory referred to as The Unifying Force; that the Force itself has no sides, that the 'light', and the 'dark' are within the user. In-universe they also discuss the Force as a more sentient consciousness which also has a 'grand plan', often referred to as the 'will of the Force', but I'll leave that at the door, because that just opens up to a further discussion about predestination. But the light, and dark being within us as opposed to outside of us? This is a great perspective to have for real Jedi, especially in regards to accountability.
Within us is Light, and Dark, and the potential to strengthen either one. This brings to mind the Cherokee tale of the wolves, which I'll now paraphrase.
An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life.
"A fight is going on inside me. It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego." He continued. "The other is good - he is joy, peace, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The same fight is going on inside you - and inside very other person, too."
The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee replied, "The one you feed."
The wolves, the sides of the Force, are within us, and I see externalised concepts as seeking to remove accountability. "I have fallen to the dark side of some cosmic element and have committed some act of evil." or even "I wasn't being myself", in an attempt to disassociate from our own moral failings. I've been there, and catch myself trying to do it sometimes. But I have to stop and take ownership of these moments, if I'm to grow as a person, let alone grow as Jedi, or even in any other tradition.
The Force is not to blame for my wrongdoings or failures. But the Force is also not to blame for my successes or doing Good. My choices are my own, and this can be a great, or terrible, thing to accept. People, including myself, can be quick to take ownership of our successes, but quicker to blame others for our failures. But I mustn't beat myself up over failures, nor spend too much time at rest while celebrating a victory; what must be done is to learn whatever can be learned from them and then carry on.