What's up Star Wars Fans?
My name is Prince, and I am an Urban Acolyte.
Today I'd like to rap with y'all about Luke Skywalker, if that's allright.
Yesterday, I was doing a livestream, and someone asked me what I'm most looking forward to
seeing in Episode 8, and I said something about wanting to learn the origins of the
Jedi-- I got cut off because my phone died, but I was going to say that I was hoping to
learn something about the inhabitants of Ach-To, those caretakers, and their relationship with
the original Jedi who founded the Temple.
I'm also hoping to learn their relationship with the current Jedi tenant, Luke Skywalker.
What I know that we're going to learn is why Luke Skywalker sought refuge at the first
Jedi Temple, like what brought him there and why he decided to stay there.
Now back in April, I took up that question as to why Luke Skywalker went into hiding.
I presented this idea of Luke being like a Zen master.
See, Zen Masters do these very unusual things that people on the outside might consider
very strange or flat out abusive behavior when they are attempting to wake their students.
I mean, there's the story of the Zen master who cuts off their students finger to help
the student wake up, or the story of Damo's student who cut off his arm to bring about
his awakening.
Even when we first meet Yoda, Luke, and maybe the audience, is expecting this grand warrior
of the Old Republic, but what we get is this little green creature who appears to be a
bit senile.
I mean Luke goes to Dagobah expecting to meet the baddest mofo in the galaxy, but he meets
a little green booger with a walking stick.
Yoda doesn't even have a lightsaber, because he lost it during his fight with Darth Sidious.
How is this dude going to teach Luke to be a warrior?
So it's that kind of thing, but you know what?
The Force works in mysterious ways.
Judge Yoda not by his size, because the Force is his ally.
So what's important when we start talking about what Luke did, what Luke is going to
do-- what's important is whatever is going on with The Force.
This line of thought that I'm going down in what I'm about to say started with a conversation
on the Fan Girl's Going Rogue podcast.
On this particular episode, Tricia, Teresa, and Sarah were talking about Ewan McGregor
reprising the role of Obi Wan Kenobi in an Obi Wan standalone film.
Well the question of whether or not the story would occur completely on Tatooine came up,
and one of the ladies said that it was George Lucas's wishes that Obi Wan stay on Tatooine
the entire time watching over Luke.
Well, Tricia said that Jedi usually stick to whatever the orders are for their particular
mission.
At this point, Obi Wan believed that Luke is actually the chosen one who will defeat
the Sith, so he's focused on his own training and his mission to guard Luke, but sometimes
things happen with the Force that can override whatever your M.O. is.
It's that whole,"there's been a tremor in the Force," and the Force is calling you into
action.
So if something is happening, and the Force is calling for Obi Wan to leave temporarily
to investigate what's going on--well, he'll have to go wtih the Force and leave for a
little while until the Force is telling him that it's okay to return.
That makes me think of a story that I heard yesterday over on Ken Gullette's Internal
Fighting Arts podcast.
Yeah, I know-- I listen to a lot of podcasts when I'm out walking.
Anyway, Ken tells this story about a Confucian scholar and a Taoist.
The two of them, the Confucian and the Taoist, are out enjoying tea and having a friendly
debate about the Analects of Confucius and the Tao Te Ching.
Up walks a soldier who slaps the Confucian scholar and begins to drink his tea.
The Confucian scholar begins to apologize to the soldier, and he does all the proper
things a person would do when addressing a government official or a high ranking military
officer.
The soldier then turns to look at the Taoist, and he draws back to slap him, too.
Just then, the Taoist jumps out of his seat, grabs the soldier by the wrist, and breaks
his arm.
Now what's the lesson here?
Is it, that if you try to drink a Taoist's tea, they'll break your arm?
No, not really...maybe, but not really in this story.
The Taoist is thinking about Tao-- the natural order of things.
This soldier is going around abusing people, abusing their power.
By breaking the soldiers arm, well, they can't abuse anyone else, not until their arm heals...and
perhaps the next time, they will think twice about abusing people, because you never know
when that ordinary looking person could turn out to be a high level master.
So why did I tell this story when I was just talking about Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker
before that?
Well, we have this idea of going with the Tao balanced with going with the Force-- following
the Way; the natural order of things.
See, the Jedi are actually Taoists.
Monk Yunrou wrote the following on his website:
Taoism emphasizes compassion, frugality, and humility and has long been the favorite worldview
of China�s intellectual and power elite.
The Star Wars franchise made Taoism famous in our culture.
Yoda and the other Jedi masters are, in fact, Taoist sages, and the concept of The Force
is based on the Taoist notion of qi, an all-pervasive, universal energy.
So when you take this idea of the Jedi as being Taoist sages, and look back at the story
about the Taoist sage--well then, how would a Jedi act in that situation where the soldier
is abusing people?
Well, they would sense a disturbance in the Force, and they'd take action.
Maybe they cut off this guy's arm, like Obi Wan did to the bandits in the cantina, or
maybe they just use a mind trick to tell them that they want to do something productive
with their life besides being a sleemo going around begging for death sticks.
The point is that you're sensing that the Force is out of balance, and you're taking
action to put it back into balance--or helping someone take corrective actions to get into
balance.
It's the same sort of thing we saw when Kanan attempted to teach Sabine to use the dark
saber--she was out of balance, and it took her facing this emotional trauma, this emotional
stumbling block, in order to bring her back into balance.
So Luke Skywalker-- what does this have to do with Luke.
Well, there was another Jedi purge, and once again the veil of the darkside has fallen
over the Galaxy.
Once again, all of this was initiated by a Skywalker.
So right now, Luke is feeling pretty guilty.
It's like "I made all of this possible.
I taught my nephew to tap into the currents of the Force, I taught him to ride the wave,
and when that wave crashed, he destroyed everything."
So I think Luke makes this decision that maybe the Galaxy is better off if no one knows how
to use the Force.
If there are no Jedi or Sith, then there are no force wielders capable of tearing the Galaxy
apart at it's seams.
Now I know that there are other force wielders outside of the Jedi and the Sith, but right
now, we can't assume that Luke knows about anything else outside of those two, not until
we learn otherwise.
So upon his arrival on Ach-To, he's had time to study original Jedi teachings and to possibly
commune with Obi-Wan and Yoda from the nether regions.
I think that between his own training and the traumatic experiences he's faced, Luke
reached this transcendent state.
I don't mean transcendent like "Oh, Luke is the most powerful being in the Galaxy.
How powerful is Luke Skywalker?
He could rip the Death Star from the atmoshphere using the Force."
Now, I mean Luke has reached this transcendent state where maybe he doesn't identify with
other people the way he once did-- Pablo Hidalgo said that Luke's greatest strength is his
compassion, but maybe he's lost that-- it's like Luke has become so Wu-Wei, so focused
on the present moment, that he's no longer present.
It's like he's embodied that opening verse in the book of Ecclesiastes, "Calamity of
Calamities, it's all Calamity, what has happened, will happen, and there's nothing new under
the sun."
Luke is in the this state of ennui or boredom, the same thing is said to have happened to
Siddartha when he initially become Enlightened.
It's like "Wow, okay, I'm Enlightened, Tadaaa!"
Except life goes on and you need a new challenge-- so the Siddartha began to teach.
Luke began to teach, but one of his pupils turned to the dark side and killed the rest
of his students.
That student then joined a military organization looking to oppress the people.
The same thing happened earlier with Anakin, and you know something?
I'm willing to bet that it happened before, too-- Remember what Maz Kanata told Finn,
Rey, and Han-- she's seen evil take many different shapes, the Sith, the Empire, and now the
First Order.
It's the cycle of Yugas in the ancient Yoga texts.
It's the dance between order and chaos.
It's Extreme Yin leading to Extreme Yang.
It's the natural order of things.
So I think Luke has either become bored with the entire ordeal, or he is looking to end
it by simply not participating.
The problem is that Poe Dameron, on a mission to find Luke, shoots a stormtrooper cadet
who Slips for the last time.
It's the last straw for his friend who tried to protect him, so he leaves the First Order--which
is a final act of defiance against the Dark Side which he's managed to resist his entire
life.
That cadet helps Poe escape, they crash land on Jakku, and the cadet, now reborn as Finn,
finds Rey--which coincides with a tremor in the Cosmic Force-- the Force has awakened
to new possibilities and the awakening of new abilities in a generation of Chlidren
of the Force who were previously deaf to the call of the Force.
So this is where Luke Skywalker is right now.
We'll have to wait until Lucasfilm lifts the viel of silence to give us a little bit more
information, and I, for one, am very much looking forward to learning more about Luke,
the Jedi, and what he's learned about the Force since we last saw him 30 years ago as
a young man on Endor.
I've shared a lot of MY thoughts, and now I would like to hear yours.
What do you think Luke has been doing all this time on Ach-To, and what kind of person
has he become?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and I'll be checking back to see what
you have to say.
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Well, that's all I've got for now.
Thanks for watching.
Y'all keep on breathing, and may the Force of Others be With You.
Always.