dark vs light vs my confusion

Oh, what a giant surprise, another question thread from River!


In the reality (versus the fiction) what's the difference between sith and jedi? I've seen people posting "well, from my dark side perspective" and having sith stuff in their signatures. I've been invited to sith sites and groups to "explore."

But really I have no idea... I read a post today that said the "dark siders" see fear as an important tool. But that's the exact same thing a person claiming the title Jedi said in another thread...

So, what's really the difference?

Questions from anyone make us all think it's a good thing make more if you want they are more important than some of the threads we have had recently

Ironically, there is not all that much of a difference besides desired outcome of studies from my understanding. I study "light/gray" to out my teachings into service to ones I have spoken to in depth on the dark side seek more to push the use of the teachings in service of themselves. Again just my understanding. Sometimes too the "sith" Make pretty good Jedi themselves so i think its a matter of perspective.

Jedi and Sith actually have far more in common than what separates them.

They often accomplish the same things, they just approach it from a different angle.

I'm going steal a couple of posts from the Apprentice Forum and hope people can forgive me hehe.

Connor L. wrote:

Jediism - Exploring and Translating Human Experience, or humanness, and following the spirit of the doctrine. Generally has a "let's be nice to each other" kind of vibe.
Sithism - Exploring Passion and using this as a tool of Self-Transformation, using self-breakdown (trial by fire) to really make progress. Expanding influence. Generally has a "let's not be nice unnecessarily to each other" kind of vibe.

Edan wrote:

The sort of short answer which I think is often assumed, is that dark aspect is egocentric and light aspect is allocentric, but I find that misleading. Light aspect is also egocentric because one is encouraged to work on themselves, even if it is to cultivate compassion, understanding etc.. Dark aspect is also allocentric because one must understand how one relates to others and to understand why others do what they do.

To me, the main difference is in the method of learning and delivery, rather than what is actually being learned. Though I will admit that there is probably some difference of intention for teaching certain things.

I think Jediism is a much slower, calmer, more thought out approach, often taking a step back and discussing things in as objective a manner as possible. Where as Sithism is about diving in head first and figuring stuff out on your own, not really caring what others think.

Though Snowy or Khaos are probably the best people to ask.

ReallyRiver wrote: So, what's really the difference?

Motivation. The dark side recognizes that you can only ever serve yourself. No matter how much good you try to project into the world, you really did it for yourself, even if it was only to make yourself feel better about your contribution. You can't escape selfishness. It's not immoral or "bad", it just is. We're human. Lighties tend to come with the pretense that they're here to serve, that everything they do is for others. That's fine, I guess, but it isn't accurate. And it doesn't make me a monster... I absolutely will drop a $20 into a homeless guy's hand when I see one, but I'm not fooling myself that I'm a good person for doing so. I did it to make myself feel good. It makes me sad to go to my nice warm apartment and have dinner while he's out there.

The result is the same, he's able to eat for a few days... but I'm not kidding myself about why I did it.

Darkness is a level of honesty in that same sort of way. You recognize the lies and peel back the wallpaper a bit at a time until you see more of the truth. Eventually you've done so much peeling that there's nowhere to hide, even from yourself. And when you've fallen into the deepest part of yourself, stripping away everything we allow the world to use to deceive us, and you've faced it all, including your own demons, having stared them in the eyes and called them by their names without excuses, you are ready to begin.

That is why the dark side is ultimately more powerful... frivolity and nonsense falls away and every effort comes boldly from 100% concentrated YOU. All of the social conventions and silly games we play and hide behind become background noise. Remember how after Fight Club everything else in life gets the volume turned down? It's like that.

Please keep in mind, I'm not saying either one (Jedi or Sith) is good or bad, it's just a different experience of honesty. I'm just answering your question. Until you jump into the chasm, you have no idea what's down there. Nobody can warn anybody else. The things you face won't be the same things that I did. Most people have no idea who they really are and what they really desire, much less how to get it. Most run away before even making it through the front gate. It's scary down there.

In fact I'd caution almost everyone against it. Fluffy bunnies make me smile

Some of the children want to pretend they are holy angelic messengers of divine providence, and some of the children want to imagine themselves as dark sorcerers and pirate rogues, conquoring, submitting reality to their own whims and taking what they want! ..LOL.. really its all a farce: the division is a facade that your imagination can cling to while you do the work necessary to come to terms with who you are and take responsibility for your life. Which is the "end game" of the more mature influences of both from what i have seen.

EDIT: but i figured out what Jedi meant to me before i got here and have neverq bothered much with Sith. My understanding (of Sith) is based on anecdotal accounts and sporadic interaction here on this forum.
So, the people who care about these titles might disagree lol..
I would suggest talking to Khaos about Sithism if youd like to learn more.

That's a pretty grand assumption that "lighties" all assume such. Some of earliest teachings here even say that everything we do is for our selves. We live a first person perspective and all decisions align to us. A Jedi simply doesn't let our selfishness prevent us from helping others. Are we helping ourselves? Yes, but others still are helped.
To me the main difference is fuel. Jedi seek to understand and limit our emotions affect on our judgement and actions. To act from a calm place. Sith seek to understand and use emotions to help them complete their tasks. Neither is wrong or evil. Just different methods on exploring our realities.

I think Jediism is a much slower, calmer, more thought out approach, often taking a step back and discussing things in as objective a manner as possible. Where as Sithism is about diving in head first and figuring stuff out on your own, not really caring what others think.

In all honesty I've seen quite the opposite here in my five years, especially in regards to how policy and politics are handled. The above statement is terribly stereotypical, and does not accurately depict the human dynamic imo...

The problem is ultimately attempting to confine or "box" people according to beliefs or philosophy created by someone else. Is is making the assumption "Jedi must act like this" and "Sith must act like that" but that is essentially poppycock, as has been proven in this community time and time again. People do what they want, when they want...

These are basically metaphorical masks, that represent forces within each individual. Over time they were misrepresented and instead of coming to understand them as parts of a whole, they are represented as separate entities locked in eternal combat...

My take on it anyway...

I don't disagree with that Zenchi.

My descriptions were more 'what I think Jedi/Sith aspire/try to be like', at the end of the day we're all human and mess up. Sometimes spectacularly so.


Edit: I also think that the Jedi ideal is slightly harder to live up to, given that human nature is prone to passionate, irrational responses

My take so far (now accepting corrections and and "yeah, but" comments ):

Jedi and Sith would probably look pretty similar from the outside based on their activities. But on the inside their understanding of their actions would be different. Jedi would be like "hey cool, I helped someone and it made me feel good as a bonus" and Sith would be like "sweet, I made myself feel good by helping someone." ...I'm pretty sure there's a Friend's episode about this actually, where Phoebe is sure she can do something purely altruistic but always winds up feeling good about it.

And also maybe Sith would get energy for their deeds from a rave and a Jedi might get it from a slow hike.

And then to some folk (grey Jedi?) it kind of doesn't matter because either way helpful deeds get done and people feel good.

I know this must be a gross oversimplification, but am I kinda getting it?

Snowy Aftermath wrote:
That is why the dark side is ultimately more powerful... frivolity and nonsense falls away and every effort comes boldly from 100% concentrated YOU. ...)

Its nice for those claiming the title Sith to pretend the dark side is more powerful but in my experience that's not really the case.

I believe true power comes from the realization that none of us are really just Jedi or just Sith. In fact we are both. We do things as humans because it gives us personal satisfaction, sure, but that also does not diminish the fact that it can also be a benevolent act at the same time. This is the philosophy of the Je'daii - embracing both the light and the dark aspects (for lack of better terms). Neither one is bad or good as they are both necessary and unavoidable. Instead its how they are utilized in cooperation with one another that makes them constructive or destructive.