Light or Shadow?

Lykeios wrote: I try to avoid making such distinctions about myself these days.

If others wish to brand me with labels and presuppositions that is their choice and has little to do with me. It is my actions that reveal who I am to others and to myself.

"The closer you get to the light the larger your shadow becomes," so why seek the light at all? (Kudos to a marvelous video game for that paraphrased quotation.) Light depends on Dark as much as Dark depends on Light. Even the sun casts a shadow from our vantage point on earth.

Here is another good quote: the brightest light casts the darkest shadow.

That is from the episode three novelization.

I like what Desolous said and would add this to it is as well: one person's virtue is another person's vice.

Why is that? Perhaps the answer to that question will be found by dissecting the applications of what a gray means to Jedi "A" compared to Jedi "B"

And even if you think you ascertained a good answer, according to master jestor's metaphysical approach, the language we use to describe it is going to mean different things to different people.

Haha.

This message was brought to you by LTK, courtesy of my wife's iPhone, in forest lakes az, enjoying some beautiful summer weather.

As an OIF veteran(detainee ops, bever left the wire), I certainly can understand what you mean, though I'm not referencing your past, I'm making a reference to your comment about an enemy going after your family.

It can be argued that in his final moments, the Sith Darth Vader became the Jedi Anakin Skywalker. Your past builds you to who you are now, but you get to choose what your future will hold in terms of light and dark. You may be capable of greatly disasterous feats- this does not mean you will fall to them. The choice is yours to make: Will you give in to your darkness, or will you act with the true heart of a Light Jedi?

At FA, our shadow choose to allow themselves to act with respect to their darkness (an example may be that they will inflict pain upon someone for harming their family/friends rather than trying to turn them over to the proper authorities) or they choose to act out of their light (giving someone an opportunity to redeem themselves), these things are not morally reprehensible to them. However, someone of the Light will always do their best to hold themselves to the highest moral standard (while maintaining tact and getting rid of "holier than thou" attitude).

Here is a question for you to consider: You find yourself in a situation where you need to subdue an enemy( they are trying to kill you), it's just the two of you, and you are out i. The open (no other danger is present, just you and your opponent). In the process of subduing your opponent, they end on the ground in critical condition- do you try to help them(helping can be as simple as calling an ambulance, but you would still need to be present when first responders arrive)? Or do you leave them, and hope you aren't caught?

A Shadow and Sith's answer will typically be the same, but for a Light Jedi, the answer should be the moral high ground.

You made plenty of sense , but you're not getting off that easily, lol.

What you have described is a someone who wants to be a Light Jedi, but you have not proven to me that you are even close to a grey. Even a Llight Jedi can make mistakes, we are -after all- human. The Shadow/Grey have always made conscious decisions to embrace their darkness when it best fits their goals, knowing full well that it is their darkness and not light. A Light Jedi does not purposely follow their darkness- that is to say, the only time they might is in a moment where they black out completely or lash out at someone verbally, only to catch what they have said after they said it.

So now, Jestor, tell me, do you make a conscious decision, accept responsibility for those actions before taking them and then act upon them? If you do not, then you are not grey in the least, you are light.

let say embracing the light side of the force .Really Really does it at same time embrace the darkness or obscure side .What is the difference for you Alethea? do you have an answer.Because i got one .The light do make any reference about being light and dark at the same time .And it's clear to me that it is the way of the force no trouble believing that for me .jedi grey are what you call in the ancient time of the earth studier of time in all the subject .From my point of view "My taught may differ from the initiative training and I haven't read it yet.

But there a big difference about bieng in the light side of the force and the other way

Where there is star there is light
where there is wars there is darkness.

Patrick, before I get any further, allow me to first clear up my beliefs: I don't believe in the light and dark sides of "the Force", only in light and dark actions.

To me, "the Force" itself is nuetral and has no consciousness-though beings created within it do as a natural part of evolution.

Dark actions are characterized by (first) your intention, next the action itself in how it fits the situation and then the aftermath. You may have good intentions (to obtain information to save a village6, but the action itself is deplorable(water-boarding). Of course, you could have done something for the right intentions (helping a friend not be so lonely), the action was good (introduce them to a group of like-minded people), the aftermath becomes devestating (your friend comes to you because they were raped by multiple members in the group [and for argument's sake pretend you have absolute proof])- what would make this dark rather than light is if you decided not to get involved to help the victim based on feelings of it not being your problem (and technically it's not your problem because you would not have expected it to happen, but it is your problem because the victim needs someone to support them).

It is important to understand that not everything can be cast in terms of light and dark, they have varying degrees. A Light Jedi strives for the most light action they can take without crossing the line into darkness. They acknowledge their darkness only because they must know what it is in order to recognize the moment they have crossed the line. This is why Light Jedi for the last 16 years have taught that you cannot fully embrace this path without first knowing and understanding yourself. Of course this is not exclusive to just the Light, those of the Sith Realist Path tend to have a greater grasp if who they are than most modern day Jedi. This concept of "Know Thyself" spans philosophies both inside and outside the Force Realists Paths.

I know what it takes to be a Light Jedi, because I am one. I have watched what it takes to be a grey/shadow Jedi, and what it takes to be a Sith. What I would like to see is depth. Who knows, some of you that claim to be Shadow may learn you are in fact Light. The only thing I'm asking is that you challenge yourselves to really show me what it means when you say "I am XYZ".

Plus, it's a quality discussion. No offense to ToTJO, but I do not see enough quality talk of what it means to be a Jedi of this order, and that is (in my opinion) a disservice to all of you.

:sick: :dry: :laugh:
You the light side of the force is there in you some left in you .Is there enough to stay there .What it take to be a jedi it is to have enough midichlorian like around 7000 thousand .Anyway there manny other kind of force that is in fact light to.They amount of midichlorian is not important to be enlightened the only way to be is to but .the choice you have the path is shown.

The best way to get pass violence is to say you defended your self during that time of offence.But training toward your goal and feeling what your deepest taught that are inside of you is there it is still there .The to reconnect through you is to beleive in other theaching of your own mind and by that way you progress to an extent.

....*shakes head* Midichlorians do not exist. You need to step out of the fantasy world Patrick, seriously. If you stay there, trust me, you'll end up losing quite a bit in life. Just a word of advice from someone that has watched it happen over and over again (both online and offline). You are treading on dangerous territory- turn back before you hit a mine.

Also, "say you defended yourself"- no, it doesn't quite work that way. And I can say this because I'm former cop. Most of the time, at some point, you become a participating assailant rather than just the defendant.

It 's in Canada we have freedom of speech

And by the way where do you think the www.temple of the jedi been inspired from

Like let say jedi consular or jedi shadow or let say jedi grey .

That just a question of speech

To be honest I just thought we were all individual Jedi

Where did this business of lux ever come into it?

So here is my question ally, is having faith in the force or god any more unrealistic than having faith in midicholorians?

Personally, while yes, what we do was inspired by fiction, the fiction is nothing more than mythology. When people begin treating mythology as fact is where we go wrong, regardless of religion. Talking about Midicholorians as if they actually existed is delusional. It is like talking about the actual handling properties of light sabers or how tough nerf stake was.

It is very important not to confuse fiction with reality. This becomes role playing and as far as I am aware, this is not a roleplaying site, but a site to separate Jedi philosophy from its science fiction wrapper so it can be applied to our real lives.