Teachings,+Sith+assignment+V

Sith Assignment V
(By Miles)

What is the Sith Code? I choose to use the following definition of code: a system of letters, symbols, or prearranged signals, by which information can be communicated secretly or briefly, or to simplify, a secret message. I see the Sith Code as a meditation.

The very first word of the code is Peace. It all begins with peace. Being the first word could imply many things. I chose to interpret it as a beginning, the foundation, the core tenet of the Code. Of all the ideas to initiate a code with, the word Peace is chosen.

The first two words “Peace is” … we are being given a definition. The purpose of a definition is to promote understanding. We are being given a way of perceiving peace for us to carry forward. “Peace is a lie.” A lie is the antithesis of a truth. Through other teachings we are taught that Truth is relative to the observer, it can be impacted by various points of view. Thus I would extend that the same can be said of a lie. If peace is a state of non-conflict, and that is the truth perceived, then it is also a lie, as any position of non-conflict, through a different point of view can be seen as a position of a different conflict. Therefore the ability to achieve a peace that all will agree is Peace is not possible, and the assumed Truth that it is a uniform ideal that is achievable, not being possible, makes it a lie. Any definition of peace is dependent on the relationship between two or more entities. As each will have a different point of view is the same interpretation of peace even achievable between two sides? Peace may by its very definition be self defeating.

However this statement is a definition, and as such is simply an attempt to promote understanding. It is important to understand this principle of peace being a lie. This does not, however, reduce in any way the value of peace, or the desire for peace. It is the first definition, the first statement, the foundation of the code. Understand the nature of Peace, and from there, proceed.

“There is only passion.” I interpret passion as the sum of the way we perceive our primal selves, the “lizard brain”, instincts. These are interpreted by us as emotional input in our brains and chemical input to our bodies. These are present in all of us, as we are animals, with generations of evolutionary development creating hard wired thoughts and reactions into our selves. Even our cognitive abilities are an evolutionary development and so it could be argued that even this is a passion. We are nothing but the sum of our passions. All of our observations are infused with passion; all of our actions are driven by them in one way or another. We are a complex association of passions, assembled and running through the span of our lives. Fortunately one passion that all humans have is ambition of some form. In many there is a drive for understanding. There is also a drive for compassion, and a drive to be given compassion by others. There are many drives, all of them passions. We are the sum of our passions, mingled with experiences, complimented by our genetic make-up. In the end, our identities, our personal truths, our dreams, our fears, our goals, our hopes … the things that make us human are all passion in origin. There is nothing else. There is only passion.

“Peace is a lie, there is only passion.” That there is no period between the two statements implies a connection. Does this mean that as long as there is passion there can be no true peace? Is it the passions that create the various points of view that prohibit peace from being there? Is peace a lie because there are passions? Would true peace only be possible if there is an absence of passion? There are those that have said that peace creates stagnation or apathy. Perhaps apathy is a path to peace? But is peace through apathy truly peace? There are many implications through this statement.

But none of the interpretations that I have involve removing peace from one’s purpose or goal. Just because something is not achievable does not mean it should not be pursued. It has been often said that it is the journey, not the destination that is important. I do feel though that a journey should have a destination, reachable or not, in order to guide it forward. Perhaps Peace is that unachievable destination and the journey is the walk toward that destination. Peace is a lie, in that it cannot be reached. But Peace as a goal is not foolishness, as there are fewer greater ambitions to guide our hand more worthy than peace. I believe the intent here is to reveal that Peace is a noble goal, but unachievable, because of our passionate natures. To recognize this is the secret.

In my younger years I was a soldier, an infantryman serving in the Army. I can think of no greater area where peace or the lack there of has greater consequence. To be in a state of non-peace is to be at war. Nothing inspires passions more readily than being shot at. The very need for survival is one of, if not the most, powerful of passions. I am aware of the passions that rise up. Fear, anger, hopelessness, inspiration, drive, ambition, hate, love, companionship, esprit de corps, pride, love, loneliness, exhaustion, futility, achievement, glory, honor, joy, relief, fatigue, hunger, reward, jubilation, loss … they are all there at one point or another, often all at once and it screwed up my head. But there is no one who has a more intimate wish for peace than the combat soldier, because they are so acutely aware of the alternative. We prepared for the inevitable day when peace would end and war would begin, because we know that it will come. It is the nature of man to fight. But just because we know it inevitable does not mean we do not still strive for it, and we fight with the end goal of reestablishing peace. For me, I was grateful that it was me there and not someone else. There are some things that civilians should be protected from. The true understanding of the horrors of war is one of them. And so in my life I prepared for war, and always prayed for peace. And I still do, though the wars are not the same, thankfully.

“Through passion”

Why “Through”? Why not “with” or “because of” or “using”? Through is an interesting choice. It implies that passion is a potential tool. Like any tool, knowledge of effective use requires insight and practical application. Our modern society is very heavily influenced by Greek thought. The Greeks feared passion, and considered them dangerous. Their goddess of love was a fickle and vain woman, known for her random temperament. The god of love was a child, playing with his bow and arrow, shooting people with his arrows with the discernment of a child. How random, how terrifying! Passions were feared as they were seen as extraordinarily powerful and very often destructive in nature. There are many myths and stories from the Greeks that reinforce this point. After all, the city of Troy was destroyed, an entire culture wiped out and many thousands killed for the simple passion Lust. We as adopters of many of the Greek ideals likewise are taught to suppress our passions to prohibit the destructive ramifications of following them. And this is a lesson that should not be cast away.

But how does one go about understanding passions? It is so individual, so unique to a person. We can observe passions in others and make mental observations that may or may not apply to our own passions, but this is rationalizing passions, not understanding them. Passions are experienced. There is no other way to gain understanding. One must experience them. In short, one must LIVE! Only through embracing the wonderments and sorrows of life can one fully come to the level of understanding that is needed. To use a Martian term from “Stranger in a Strange Land”, we must grok passions, understand them on such a base level that we know them in our heart as well as our mind, that the understanding infuses with our lives so that understanding them is as natural as breathing. Only through experiencing life can this be achieved. Passions have the potential to be truly destructive, as well as truly constructive. Awareness of their use is required. Not by Using Passions, not Because of Passion, but Through Passion, with a full understanding of the risks and rewards, the cause and effect, the pitfalls and enslavements will the rest of the line come to fruition.

“Through passion, I gain strength.”

There are many ways to look at strength, but if we focus on the strength derived from a full understanding of our passions, I see strength of self awareness and a sense of self being a natural result. Like the strength of an iron bar, it is measured not on what it can accomplish but what it can withstand. Through understanding our passions, both the positive and negative, and through proper and responsible application of those passions, we develop a resistance to the side effects of passions within ourselves and an ability to withstand, through that understanding, the effects of the passions of others. Passion being dangerous, understanding passions protects us from those dangers.

This phrase also implies a progress. Though passion is not the only path to strength, it would be hard to imagine an equal strength without an understanding of one’s own passions. Therefore it is a process, and one should not assume that there is strength where there is no understanding of passions. This, I feel, has been the downfall of many. Strength at various times in various cultures has been viewed as the harnessing and suppression of passion. I think this is the failing that our society has built itself on, for as long as they are suppressed or ignored, they will continue to create problems in any society. We have indoctrinated a people with a core weakness: they are ill prepared to handle and resolve the problems deriving from passions.

For me personally, I am aware of the strength that comes through passion, though it was one of many very painful lessons to learn. It is interesting to note that it is the negative passions that build our strength more than the positive ones. I do not know if it is cultural or human, but negative reinforcement always comes to mind more readily than positive. At the collapse of my first marriage I felt completely betrayed. This betrayal left me hate filled and wrathful towards all women. I allowed those passions to guide me, and did a great deal of harm to others. It had changed my priorities and I was bound and determined to get back my own sense of self using lust as my medium. I did not like the weakness that I had become in my marriage and realized that it was that transformation that really killed the relationship more than anything. In the end it was a friend who stuck with me for the next few years (now my wife) who was able to see me through out to the other side. I clawed my way back out of that pit and now am much stronger for it. I have the personal strength to be confident in my own identity, something I was lacking in that first marriage. It was only learned by experiencing it, and admittedly was far easier to handle than the first major sense of betrayal that I experienced during a riot in the Army (that made me inhuman for 2 years). Perhaps with this perception, I can walk into the next one with more understanding and handle it a bit less destructively.

“Through Strength” Again it is the understanding and use of strength that is important. What is the nature of your strength? What areas are you not strong? I look at it as evaluating the fortifications of a castle, or perhaps the foundation of a house. Where are the hard points? Where are the weak points? I do not believe that any strength is all encompassing, and within strength is an inherent weakness. Understanding this by evaluating your own strengths is the key. But again, the strength is a tool, not an end in and of itself. One must understand the tool and how best to use and not to use it. Hammering a nail with a screwdriver can be done, but it is easier with a hammer.

It is not the strength that is enough. It is not the ability to endure that is sought. It is through an understanding of passion that it is developed. As passions are individual, so therefore is strength. Understand your own strength and learn its vulnerabilities.

But how does one go about understanding their strengths? Just as one learns about passion by living life, one understands strength by observing it. The nature of power is individual, yes, but to understand the weaknesses one needs to watch the interactions of strengths as they relate to one another. This is done by observation of chiefly the self but also of others, how things relate, and how strengths compliment and repel one another. To live life is the base, but to do so without observing leads to a small life of little accomplishment. Through observation and reflection upon our experiences we are able to begin to understand our strength.

“Through strength, I gain power”

Through the understanding of our strengths, and in turn, our weaknesses, we gain power. So what is power? I fell that power represents our ability to impart our will upon things outside ourselves. In a crude example, having physical strength grants the power to move heavy objects. If I have the strength of a charismatic personality, then I may have power to influence the thoughts and deeds of others. If I have the strength of personal drive and determination, I may have the power to achieve tasks that take a great deal of time and patience. Through an understanding and the proper application of any given strength, there is a means to exercise your will. Attempting to exercise your will without being aware of your strengths may very well cater to your weaknesses, and no amount of will is going to yield the true potential.

There is a rather interesting example of this taking place in my martial arts studies today. I have been studying Western Martial Arts in the Lichtenauer tradition for a year. This compliments my previous 10 years sword combat experience nicely and has been a passion of mine, consuming many wakeful evenings. During the year, the instructor for the class, very passionate about the material and very driven to share his knowledge, did not have, as strength, the ability to teach advanced concepts. This I felt was truly unfortunate. He was very skilled in getting information into the heads of complete novices quite nicely. His strength of being able to break things down and present them to fresh eyes was well complimented. There was, however, one weakness that he had. He had a need to have a firm hand of control over his class. This lead to problems when he was questioned or when techniques he was demonstrating were challenged based on material he had previously covered. This led to disagreements in class with some of the students, and as he was unable to resolve them, he removed those students that were most confrontational. This was a problem. In the end the instructor broke away from the school and is starting his own school. The original school is replacing him with me, where hopefully my understanding of my strengths (some charisma, a passion for the sport, and a strong ability to teach through understanding the mind of the student) will yield results more in line with what the dean of the school is after. Understanding my own weaknesses comes into play as well. By looking at where I am weak, that is my demeanor when in a focused mind set, and keeping that in mind, I hope to be able to mitigate problems that this weakness would cause. Through this understanding I hope to have the power to impart upon others the information I have and seek out new and a more robust understanding of the art.

Through Power

Power is yet another tool. Understanding power is necessary to move forward. It is said “with great power comes great responsibility” and I feel this to be true. When you exercise your will, you are facilitating change. The greater your power, the greater the change you can facilitate. As we do not each live in a vacuum, the changes we make will impact others, other lives, other needs, other desires. Therefore we must not forget to facilitate change is to take ownership of that change and all of the ramifications that derive from them. Even if I do not care what impact a change I started has on others, I must acknowledge that it has had impact on others. Without this knowledge I am nothing more than a child with a gun. It is very likely that eventually I will bring great harm onto myself at some point.

Another aspect of power is the corrupting influence. I feel this goes hand in hand with the responsible use. If I am not responsible in the use of my power, and do not remember the impacts it has on others, I shall come to rely on my power too heavily and begin walking down a very dangerous and short sighted road. The corruption comes when one remembers one’s passions, fuels power with them, but has forgotten peace.

To understand power we must test our ability to change something. By doing this we can experience the change, and the ramifications, good and bad. We can study our power and refine it. We can focus it to any given task. It becomes a process of honing the tools in our arsenal to identify their best usage and the risks associated.

When we understand our power and can use it with responsibility, then we can direct it to a given goal in a proper manner. We can take our arsenal of tools and set them against a task.

Through power, I gain victory

Ah victory, the accomplishment of a task. Using the tools of our power arsenal we can assemble a plan, execute a task and achieve a goal. Victory does not require opposition, though often the more hard-fought the victory is the more satisfying. But in order to achieve victory, there must be a plan. What is victory if not the achievement of some goal through proper execution of a plan? It is the culmination of the stepping stones through which we have traveled. We lived life that we may understand our passions. We observed life that we may understand our strengths. We have tested our power to understand its limitations. Now we set them to task of executing our will, following a plan to an achievable goal in which we have not only accomplished what we set out to do but have not strayed from the journey to ever-elusive peace. We have done so with responsibility and recognition of consequence, and have evaluated that the victory was well worth the price, or at least within acceptable levels through the means achieved. It is through our victories that we interact with the world in the most meaningful of ways.

In my own case, the greatest victory achieved that is easy to explain is my path to where I am in my career now. At 22 I was living on the streets, stealing food off of tables in a pizza place before the tables were cleared. I worked as a security guard when I could find work, and wasted whatever money I got on instant gratification. I was living according to my passions. I had been given an opportunity to go to college but threw it away in exchange for lust filled evenings when I should have been studying. It was a life of my own doing. I decided that this would change, and in 10 years I would be working as a computer programmer. I evaluated my current situation and decided that a hard reset was required, so I enlisted. Four years later I was out with a whole new set of strengths to my credit, imparted to me by my training. This is not to say they were not there, but they were reinforced during my time in for Army purposes.

Once I got out I got a job and went to school, making use of the money provided by my time in service. I studied with new found diligence and within 2 years was employed as an intern for a major computer company. I worked and went to school full time, and worked ridiculous hours. After another year and a half I was brought on full time as a salaried employee. All in all it only took 8 years.

A new plan set in motion, and I set the goal of becoming a senior software engineer within 5 years … Now, 5 years later I exceeded this goal by one level. Now I am about as successful as I desire to be in my career, and am thinking of taking on a new one. This was a major victory. But at every step, there were choices. There were various powers that came into play, and various decisions on the best and most ethical way to accomplish the given subtask. Only one of my decisions have I ever questioned and it is more because of an unforeseen result that caught me by surprise. Certainly victory came at a cost. I lost my first wife. I lost years of doing anything else by working so hard. I lost friendships. But I gained new ones, and achieved other benefits. Salary isn’t bad either.

But there is a dark side to victory.

Through Victory

Understanding victory, success, and accomplishment, especially when faced with an opponent where your gain is their loss (inevitable sometimes), is understanding that what has been achieved was not only an execution of will, but a planned and premeditated accomplishment of a goal. You set that goal. You pursued it. You set the pieces in motion. If you had not, then it is not your victory.

Observing victory is one of the easiest as it requires forethought. You are conscious of what you are after from beginning to end. It may change over time, but it is still there. Looking back and seeing the collateral damage caused in the victory is another aspect of observation. It may serve as a means to refine the use of power, or may serve as a point of insight for future plans, just as any experience is. It is not hard to observe at all, but what has victory given you?

Through Victory, my chains are broken

What does this mean, chains are broken? What are chains? In their common use they are used to restrain a force lesser than the strength of the chain. But to what end? In most cases I see chains as a means of protection. If they are used as in shackles, and I am wearing them, then some other force seems to think that I may provide a threat to their intention. The shackles they have put upon me are to protect their interests. If you chain a load down to a flat-bed truck, you do so to protect your goal of transporting the load from being foiled by the load moving around on the truck. If you chain up a bike, you protect your bike from someone else forcibly removing it. Chains protect.

So what are my chains? Are they the chains that others place upon me for their protection, or are they the chains that I use to protect myself? Chains are a tool, a static device used for protection, but they are outside my power. They are independent of my power. I could say that my bonds of family are a chain. I am protected by the support they provide often enough. I could say that my willful perspectives on certain disagreeable topics that I arbitrarily put in place to protect myself from that perspective is a chain.

But what is the nature of a breaking chain. A breaking chain is useless. It will break at the weakest link, has a maximum ability to resist, and once broken, that chain as it is cannot be used. If it is needed it will need to be repaired, but the repaired chain will not be the original chain. It will be a new set of links. Many of the old links may be reused, but the broken link is gone forever. A broken chain is a one way trip.

So how does all this relate to victory? When one pursues victory one takes ownership of their power, their strength and their passions. In order to achieve victory in the truest sense there is the need for responsibility. Many of the chains that are formed upon us at childhood, there to protect us, shield us from the weight of responsibility. Once we exercise our power to a goal of victory, we begin to willingly pull against the very chains that protect us. Some prefer to look at chains as though they are chained to a wall, prevented from escaping. I view my chains as those holding up the weight of the world, so that I am not crushed underneath. As I achieve victory after victory, I demonstrate that I am able to bear the weight. As this is demonstrated, a chain breaks, shifting more of the weight on to my shoulders. The greater my victory, the more chains break.

It is a one way trip. Once a chain is broken, unless I set in motions plans to create new chains, thus shifting the weight back to others to carry rather than myself, the chain will never be reattached.

To break the chains is not something I look forward to, but should I wish to accomplish victory, I must be willing to accept the breaking of chains that comes with it. It is not progression that is being illustrated in this line, but eventual cost and burden.

However, because I was not foolish in the progression and remembered the hazards of passion, the weaknesses within my strengths, the responsibility of my power, and the planning of my victory along a path of peace, I am able to bear the weight. In fact I embrace it, as it means that another is not carrying my load, and I am able to carry the load of my daughter as she needs until she can carry her own.

Just as Adam and Eve, protected from the hardships of adulthood, labor, pain in child birth, in the Garden of Eden, had to be cast out, the chains protecting them broken forever, so we in our own progress through life will have the chains that protect us as children broken as we grow to adulthood. But in truth, in the end, this is not a bad thing, for we have a greater reward from the breaking of our chains. We have ownership of our lives. I do not know of many who would give that up to have the old chains recast, and the weight it held taken away. Would that not also take away our victories? All we would have is the memory of a life without the chain. That, to me, would be a greater burden than I would be willing to bear.

And the force shall free me.

In the end, as this is the end of the code, comes the force, the unifying source of all life and existence. Just as life is a part of the force, so is death. Our individual lives, as part of the greater force, shall pass. We will leave echoes of ourselves in our absence. The end comes to all, and in this end the burden that we carry as a price of the victories we have achieved, big and small, will be removed from us. We shall be free from both the chains and the burden. The lessons of this life will be carried on. Whether they will be carried on by ourselves I cannot say, but they will persist in this life as the impressions we leave on others. It is not our lot in life to carry our burdens for eternity. The force will balance all in the end, and just as it is impossible in the beginning, so it will be possible in the end. We will come to the final destination of this life’s journey. Peace.

What we do with our lives, what becomes of our passions, our strength, our power, our victories and the lessons from all of these we shall have to wait for the next life to understand. I feel we are merely in preparation and when it is time, I will go well prepared. Should there be nothing beyond this life, it will be a life well spent full of victories and glory. Burdens I am more than happy to carry.