Learning the meaning of the dark side in itself is a task—not because there is physical labor involved in the matter, but simply because the dark side is based largely on temptation, fear, and several other critical emotions that the padawan/apprentice must face on his/her own. The master must often guide, but because this is the largest stage of self-growth it is student that must interpret his/her feelings completely, honestly, and with out fear. Doing this is hard: there is conflict, denial, and even at certain times anger. Yes, anger can lead to the dark side, however, it is a basic emotion that every human being must learn to live with and control. Allow me to lead you through my own personal growth, my own feelings and inner workings, and of course allow me to share with you my own beliefs of the dark and lightside concepts of the force.
Becoming a padawn is a responsibility, an honor, as well as a means by which any student may personally become in tune with the force. Before I can get more in-depth on the actual workings of the force, however, I must first explain exactly why becoming a padwan is such a big responsibility. Each master takes time out of his or her life to train you, and often if you become a padawan as oppose to an apprentice, this training has been specially sculpted to fit your own personal needs. To start training with out finishing it is a waist of valuable time, although in certain instances if is a trainee is unsure about his/her own personal growth it is expectable to suspend this training.
My own training went rather quickly, but when I got to my last stage of training, my exploration into my own darkside, I began to see problems. It would have been easy for me to simply state my weakness, or the definition of what I believed a sith was, but there is much more to self-growth than simply stating something. Why was I here, why had I spent hours meditating, and why did I wish to become a Jedi? In some ways, I felt it was my path, but looking deeper I realized that I had selfish reasons too. I wanted to learn the force, control the force—not necessarily for my own personal gain, but because I did wish to be stronger than everyone else. I looked deeper. There I saw perfection, complete control of emotions, yes this is what I wanted. My master noticed this quality on one particular occasion, and upon her noticing it I tried my best to rationalize it, to make my needs for complete control fit the persona of a Jedi by looking for loop holes in the meaning. But as I have heard several times, power does not define a Jedi.
A Jedi, has a strong mind. They control their bodies, their bodies do not control them. When you become angry do you go out of control, or do you keep your composure? A Jedi keeps his/her composure. A Jedi foresees situations and takes the best possible action. The sith, despite common belief also have great control, yet their anger often eats away at them and there is often a need for revenge. The sith in many ways are often the most tactical of force users, but with this and there other abilities a price is paid. Peace, is lost, and because the sith strive for power, because they hate the weak, they must often hate themselves—hate their weakness and loath their inability to become more powerful. If they do not, then they are denying themselves of the truth, the realization that there is always someone more powerful. I can not speak completely for the sith, because I am not one, however, this is what I believe. The Jedi, also seeks power, but we are not consumed in the need for it. Instead the Jedi’s purpose is to live in a healthy manner, and mental health and strength are merely a means by which a Jedi is able to do these things.
The force, is the strongest place that the Jedi get this power. There is a lot more to the force than simply feeling it and allowing it to run through you. This is merely the gate way. Allowing the force to truly run through gives you an unmatched amount of strength and power, although I in way I do not mean so in the super natural sense, but rather the real sence in which the body is wielded by the mind as oppose to vice versa.
Allow me to give you an example:
A very long time ago, one man stood alone in front of his teacher to protect him from the arrows of many attackers. Arrow after arrow penetrated the man’s body, but he continued to stand still protecting his master. The attackers, seeing this, became very afraid and ran away. They understood that his power was no longer of the physical world.
“Hard training is not just muscle training; it is not only discovering the redirection of force through strong resistance. These training are important, but the hard training that builds strong spirit and develops spiritual confidence is the training of a hard situation. It is easy to train vigorously everyday if you have plenty of good nourishing food and plenty of rest. Try fasting for a week and still continue to train. As the body reaches its limits the spirit takes over and begins to grow. Obviously this type of training should never be undertaken without supervision of a qualified teacher.”
The sith, rely on, anger, and fear to fuel their power and their strength, but the Jedi has spirit, something the sith can never unlock. This is the difference between sith and Jedi training. When someone becomes a Jedi, they no longer think of things in the real or the unreal. They no longer feed on jealousy. Instead their spirit guides them. Yes, every Jedi gets angry, and in fact it is normal, not abnormal. However, unlike the sith, this anger is not the drive but rather it is the spirit. A Jedi may need to fight at times, but it is that Jedi’s responsibility to protect his opponent as well as himself. Unlocking the spirit is something that happens over time, as well the spiritual growth of each Jedi continues and can never be mastered for there is no limit to the human spirit. Allow the force to run through you and the spirit will take over—this is the way of a Jedi.