I was watching “Star Wars” last night and the Tao Te Ching this morning, and it got me to think about the relationship between the Force and the Tao. When we first met Han Solo, he was like the man who Lau Tzu described who either laughs at the Tao, or only half believes in it. Consider, after all, what he said to his across-the-galaxy flying clients Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi about the Force, which they both very much believed in:
“Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good light blaster at your side, kid… I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful Force controlling everything. No mystical energy field controls my destiny. It’s all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.”
The Force in George Lucas’s “Star Wars” films and the Tao of Taoism have much in common. “One way to describe the Force is the universal energy that surrounds all beings and connects everything – that’s the Tao,” says John Porter, author of “The Tao of Star Wars.”
The Tao is said to contain the opposite forces of light and dark energies in the universe as pictorially illustrated in the famous yin/yang circle of light in the dark half circle and dark in the half circle of light. The Force is characterized as having a light side and a dark. The heroes of Lucas’s space fairy tale serve the light side of the force; the evil ones serve their own egos with the aid of the dark side. Anakin Skywalker was a hero when he served the light side, but became a deadly monster after being seduced by the dark side and succumbed to its temptations. He then gave his allegiance to It and to the evil Emperor.
In the Taoist tradition, those with superhuman abilities are called Junzi. Yoda was clearly such a being, as was Luke after he learned from the ancient Jedi master many secrets of the light side. Obi-Wan Kenobi was a talented Junzi in the Star Wars prequel, evolved still further to become a noble Daojun, as a Taoist might put it, when he took on Anakin as his first disciple. He rose even further into the status of a Shengren, or what the Chinese call a sage. Finally, he became immortal (Xianren) – a status enjoyed by 900-yearold Yoda. Obi-Wan became a guiding spirit (Shen) for Luke, often manifesting in spirit form, to continue to teach his former disciple. All Jedis were trained in combat that looked awfully similar to the Chinese martial arts practiced by many Taoists.
The Way of Wu-Wei
A vital precept in The Tao Te Ching is wu-wei, translated as non-action in the spirit of effortless behavior. It is not passivity or lethargy at all. It is effortless activity that springs from the center of one’s being, one’s essential nature or Te.
During Luke’s Jedi training program with the ancient Yoda, the youth often used his will instead of letting things be, and letting the Force do the work. At one point, when the master asked the disciple to raise a rocket ship, the overwhelmed youth said that he’d try. That’s when the teacher shot back his now-famous dictum: “There’s do or not do, there’s no trying.” The Tao doesn’t try, the sun doesn’t try, and neither does a tiger in the jungle, poised to make an attack and a kill. Each is centered in its nature, and allows Nature to express Itself through it. That is also what the disembodied Obi-Wan encouraged his charge to do when he was using technology instead of the Force to destroy the Empire’s Death Star. “Use the Force, Luke, let go,” he implored his student. Letting go enabled the youth to become one with the Force and take a shot from there. He did, and the shot was successful, destroying this deadly weapon in the hands of the evil Emperor.
