Quite often I come to these hallowed halls and see something stating how another supposedly handles their emotions. Particularly those of the light side. The very code we follow states there is no emotion, there is peace. This is interpreted that we refuse emotion, that we deny that part of us in order to function.

Show of hands, how many of you can honestly say, be it light, shadow, or dark, can honestly say that you actually subscribe to this concept?

I seriously doubt there is a one of you who do. So lets talk about Emotions and what they are? To speak of them in simple terms, they are filters we use.

Depending on how we set them up, they will affect how we receive data and how we respond to it. A lightsider sees this reality and actively adjusts the filters to what they see as appropriate. Thereby adjusting their emotions to what they see as appropriate as opposed to the filters acting on their own accord and thereby controlling us.

Lets be honest, we all feel emotions, we all love, we all hate, we all laugh, we all cry. No one is separate from this reality. It is a commonality we all share. But what is the ultimate goal of a lightsider when it comes to emotions? It comes down to one all encompassing essence of the light side, which is to affect the world around us in the most positive way we can. Which is to say that we do not use emotions for our personal needs, but for the betterment of the world around us.

When we speak of emotions, we not only recognize that we individually have emotions, we also recognize that everyone else does. But there is one fact which is very seldomly talked about… and that is very few people actually try to control their emotional filters, which makes them susceptible to others being able to illicit responses out of them by calling up an emotion. A prime example is a new motivation from the PETA group (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals).

Before I go into this, I am for their views, but I do not agree with their policies. Their latest push is to try to get people to stop eating fish, by doing so, they wish to condition people to stop calling fish fish, but to call them sea kittens.

This is intended to illicit an emotional response to people. Lets be honest… especially of the meat eaters… how many of you like the idea of eating a kitten? I know I don’t, but I also do not have a filter problem where I would look at a sea kitten stick differently now then I did when it was thought of as a fish stick. But how many people will change from fish now that this thought is put into their heads? Honestly as long as one person does, it was effective.

We can cite many examples of commercials which use emotion and not reason to try to convince you that their product is superior, I remember as a child, hearing my dad talk about the truck he bought…”Because it was Ram tough” You all know which company makes that truck don’t you? But do you actually know which truck is actually the best in all reasonality?  Its ok, for most here it probably isn’t important but it still proves my point. (For those interested. Currently it is the Ford F Series trucks and has been for a while, but Toyota’s Tundra line has been making inroads on the ¾ ton truck line) Both of these instances are not meant to talk about any ideology except one, which is that as a light jedi, we understand that after the emotional content is given, there is other data which is needed. Which brings us back to another light jedi foundational idea… which is the search for data, the search for knowledge.

In the case of emotions, it is the understanding that when emotional data is given, that most of the time, more data is required and a light jedi should be ready to pursue that extra data and not let the emotional content be all controlling. With such knowledge obtained, the light jedi is free to pursue such knowledge or allow the emotional response to be used. An easy statement to make, but not always is it used by a majority of the human population.

This is the reality that all of us face, even those who claim enlightenment. That we are susceptible to lack of control given the situation. The light jedi pursuit, when it comes to emotion, is to limit this lack. To do this, we have tools which help us.

 

1. Understanding Part of looking for knowledge is knowing our emotions and what triggers them. By seeing what triggers them, we can create pathways of understanding which will help us to work more appropriately through an emotional situation. The more knowledge we find on the subject, the more likely we are to respond with a positive outcome.

 

2. Discipline Self control at its most basic. The ability to look at a response and to be able to determine a response instead of having a random response which is not controlled. The knowledge that regardless of the situation, we are responsible for our actions.

 

3. Reality There is a certain reality that we all must understand, and that is that as human beings… we simply cannot be expected to be able to control every situation.

This happens in all of us to a certain degree. But where this is reality, there are two other realities we as human beings have that is very hard to resolve. One being that we do not always know when to take responsibility and in fact some simply refuse any responsibility. The other being that we are terrible at forgiving. Be it for ourselves or others. (Hence why we try to stay away from responsibility) This is a common focus problem to which I say, ‘Set your sight on potential, not problems’. If you do, I bet you will be amazed at what you see.