I want to know, what is The Force?

A lot of air is above me. Above that is a grass roof. It keeps out the sun. Above the roof, clouds boil. I hear thunder. A deep rumble. There is also a memory, the memory of my grandmother telling me that when the sky thunders, the Gods are moving furniture. There is also a question: I explicitly remember my grandmother saying "Gods" when she is a devout Roman Catholic. Any Gods in addition to the Abrahamic God would be heresy on her part. I am back in the present. The sky thunders. That is sound. There is also hope. I really hope this means the rainy season will begin. A thousand trees beg for water, and I am not strong enough to give it to them.

Swirling around this single moment is thoughts, memories, questions, sound waves, electricity, physics, chemistry, biology, and a thousand theories that have yet to be conceptualized by science as we know it. All this stuff is composed of (at its most simple level) matter and vibration. There is one last hope. The hope that my individual thoughts, memories, and questions are somehow connected to the vast energy in the sky. I hope the energy that beckons thunder and rain from the sky is the same energy that stirs memories of a grandmother, or thoughts of laughter.

We all want to be connected to something bigger. Hope is not always truth... but sometimes it can be.



For most of us.... maybe for all of us... The Force is symbolic of the divine (or lack of the divine). If I equated the Force to a specific God, I wouldn't be studying Jediism. I would be kneeling in a church, or bowing in a mosque, or sitting on a meditation blanket in front of a mandala. My insecurity in the divine has led me to embrace the force, to acknowledge that I do not know if anything connects us, but I hope something does. Because I have no conclusion, the force is always changing. Moving, flowing, ebbing, growing.

I might hope that after studying Jediism, studying life, and studying science, I may come to a conclusion. Every seeker of religion seeks a conclusion. We all seek a concrete pillar of confidence, a spiritual core to build philosophies, careers, lives, families... I do not think the force cares about any of that. I do not think the force has a conclusion. It cannot be described, because it is beyond words. It cannot be known, because it is always changing. Is this then a reason to drop our staffs, or swords, our pens, our books, our laptops? To end the quest for knowledge? No. It is the changing path that matters.

I could keep writing. Trying to explain The Force with words is like trying to understand the sun by looking at it. We understand the sun by lying on a hillside and absorbing vitamin D. We understand the sun by studying plants, photosynthesis, light, physics, astronomy, gravity. We understand the sun by living our lives in its light, and remembering the light when all we see is darkness. If we try to understand the sun by looking at it... we just go blind.

That might be the smartest or the most foolish thing I have ever said... extremes are always a good place to end.

OB1Shinobi wrote: For me, the Force is the web of cause and effect by which the universe moves. Is it mystical or metaphysical? Magical, even? Well, maybe. Certainly to the degree that these words mean something which exists in reality then they are an aspect of the Force. I perceive and interact with my immediate environment. Lets say, all the sounds that i can hear and everything i can see within my field of vision; this is the piece of the universe that I have some degree of access to. Potentially, I can affect and be affected by anyone and most anything in my immediate environment. But Im also immersed in a web of circumstances which are the result of my personal experiences and choices. I chose to be a Jedi, I chose to do the job that I do and to pursue the degree that I am pursuing and the hobbies and interests that I explore in my free time. All these choice immerse me in processes and relationships which shape my personality and offer me new opportunities. I also have effects on the people and events that I interact with and while my impact on the Fore may be minimal, it is real.

Every single thing about me (and all of us) from my height and weight to my belief structure to the circumstances that have me at this computer in this place right now as i type this, can all be traced back to a cause or a set of causes. Following this process of tracing back to find the cause/s will take us, eventually, all the way back to the very birth of the universe (we are made of molecules that made stars). All of this is what the Force is, to me. Some of the causes and effects going on in the universe may be magical, definitely many are purely physical but whatever they are, they constitute a web of causality of which i and everything else in existence is a part. This web of cause and effect is large and complicated beyond my comprehension and the vast majority of it is completely out of my reach, but some small piece of it responds directly to me and my behavior and influences me and my behavior. I am in a relationship with Reality. This is what the Force is, to me.