YOUR CHOICE
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(Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra)
Introduction
The
phenomenal success of the Star Wars movies goes without saying. It is
well-known that George Lucas was influenced, among other things, by
Akira Kurosawa’s film The Hidden Fortress and Joseph Campbell’s study of myth, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Lucas draws from various myths and religions in weaving his saga, so
that everyone can find something familiar in it. Lucas is quite
conscious of what he’s doing: “I’m telling an old myth in a new way,” he
says. Here, we shall be concerned to unpack his work from a Sufic
perspective. This, of course, is not intended to invalidate other
approaches to the series of films.
A
note about the order of the movies. Originally, the movies in the first
Star Wars trilogy were numbered as 1, 2, and 3. After the prequels were
released, these became 4, 5, and 6, and the prequels began to be
counted as 1, 2, 3. It is this latter, updated numbering that we will
use below. The order in the storyline rather than the order in which the
films were made will be used. In other words, the very first Star Wars
movie (1977), later referred to as A New Hope, will count as number 4.
The Force
“I put the Force into the movie in order to try to awaken…a belief in God… I think it’s important to have a belief system and to have faith. … I think there is a God. No question. … Ultimately the Force is the larger mystery of the universe. … I would hesitate to call the Force God. It’s designed primarily to make young people think about the mystery.”—George Lucas
Indeed,
the Force, as it emerges throughout the series, is more akin to the
Chinese conception of the Tao. If it is a Deity, it is an impersonal
one. Obi-wan Kenobi describes the Force as “an energy field created by
all living things” which “binds the galaxy together.” This sounds much
like the Chinese life-force, Qi or Chi. Its parallels can be found in
other cultures as well. Furthermore, the “Dark Side” and the “Light
Side” of the Force are very similar to the Chinese concepts of Yin and
Yang. But then, the concepts of good and evil—or correlates
thereof—exist in all cultures.
Viewed from a Sufic standpoint, the Force represents not only God, but also baraka, the spiritual power bestowed by God on a Sufi Saint or “Friend of God,” by which s/he is enabled to perform miraculous deeds (karamat).
“Use the Force, Luke!” says Obi-wan Kenobi. (In Sufism it is important
to distinguish between miraculous deeds and outright miracles (mujiza), which are considered to be granted exclusively to prophets.)
Lightsabers
Lightsabers
are the weapons of choice for Jedi knights. They can be seen in combat
scenes all through the Star Wars series of movies. Contrary to some
opinions, these swords are not laser beams, but swords of plasma. Quick
refresh: plasma is the fourth state of matter after liquid, solid and
gas, and consists of a soup of subatomic particles at superhigh
temperatures, where they cannot exist in the bound form of atoms or
nuclei. It is this intense heat which gives a lightsaber its “cutting
edge,” so to speak.
(Actually, if real lightsabers are
made one day, they will probably employ both. A laser beam may be used
to open an ionized path for keeping the plasma beam straight. See also this recent article, original here. If this becomes further feasible, lightsabers may really be made of light someday.)
Plasmas
are notoriously difficult things to contain in a stable form, so one of
the solutions proposed for creating and maintaining them has been the
Tokamak design. This is basically a hollow doughnut where heavy-duty
magnets are used to keep the ionized particles trapped in a “magnetic
bottle.”
Conceptual design of a Tokamak; experimental realization of a plasma beam
Although
the plasma is white (because it’s white-hot), the lightsabers we see in
the movies are variously colored, mostly blue (for friendly forces),
red (for evil or “Dark Side” forces) and green (Yoda’s). These are the
three primary colors for light. Other colors are used for lightsabers as
well in the Star Wars expanded universe (SWEU), which includes video
games, cartoons, toys, comic books, and other storylines. So let’s
continue our subject with light.
Here we shall be concerned with lightsabers primarily for their symbolic value. According to Martin Lings, a symbol is “a reflection or shadow of a higher reality” (Symbol and Archetype,
p. 1). In the Imaginal World, for instance, milk is a symbol for
Knowledge, because like milk, spiritual knowledge nourishes us, gives us
life, and helps us grow. The lightsaber is a very good example of a
symbol, both because it is a sword and because it is made of light. It
is a symbol for the Axis of the Universe, which is the axis of
spirituality or the axis of consciousness. (For this, see Superheroes and Sufism.)
Let’s
begin with the famous “Light Verse” of the Koran: “God is the light of
the heavens and the earth… Light upon light” (24:35). This light, we
must not forget, is divine light, spiritual light (Arabic Nur, Latin lux), not physical light (Ar. ziya, Lat. lumen)
made up of photons. So whenever we speak about light, it’s always in
this sense, unless indicated otherwise. Examples from physical light are
meant as analogies.
The prism block of a Foveon digital camera splits white light into its primary colors: green, red, and blue (below, far left).
A prism disperses a white light beam into the colors of the rainbow.
However, if the colored beam is refocused with a lens onto another
prism, it can recombine the colors to yield the original white beam (far right):
In
terms of Sufism, this is very much like the creation of the universe.
According to the Sufi mystic Ibn Arabi, there exist “immutable entities”
(ayan al-thabita). These are the ways in which God knows
Himself. When God’s Light illuminates God’s Knowledge (the realm of the
Immutable Entities), this is very similar to a beam of white light
striking a prism (or prisms). The universe is created in a way that is
analogous to white light producing the colors of the rainbow.
In a similar way, the various colors of lightsabers can be recombined to obtain white (at right):
And
indeed, from the SWEU it appears that the lightsabers of the Old
Republic were originally white. (The color of the sun, too, is actually
white when seen from outer space. It is because the atmosphere scatters
its light that the sun is seen as yellow and the sky as blue.)
Combining the various colored lights together to again obtain the one white light is called Unification (tawhid). That is when one may perceive the spiritual sun.
Just
as a beam of white light can be split into millions of hues when it
passes through a prism, the light created at the beginning of the
universe, laden with infinite possibilities, engendered the countless
beings (indeed, countless worlds) we observe around us today.
Similarly, white-hot plasma, containing energy of all frequencies, can
be viewed as the originator of rays covering the entire electromagnetic
spectrum. It, too, can be compared in analogy to the original light that
engendered creation at the origin of the universe.
Hugh
Everett III (famous for the Everett-Wheeler-Graham (EWG) or
“many-worlds” interpretation of quantum physics) once said that it made
sense to talk about a wave function for the entire universe. In that
case, and again by analogy, the First Light could spawn dizzying
infinities upon infinities of possible universes—though not haphazardly,
but ordered in accordance with the infinite wisdom of God (His
Attribute of Omniscience (ilm)).
I
keep saying that we are not going to understand the Koran unless we use
the tools made available to us by Sufism. Now here is a good example:
“The Compassionate established Himself upon the Throne” (20:5). What do
you make of that? We are not going to understand it unless we remember
that istiwa also means “straightened,” and Arsh, the
Throne, also means the Highest Heaven (Empyrean). What does the verse’s
interpretation then become? “The Compassionate straightened (stood erect)
upon the Highest Heaven.” And this has something to do with the Axis of
the Universe, hence also with the genesis of the universe. We would not
be able to reach this conclusion if we had stuck with the customary
interpretation. But of course, one should also beware of making
arbitrary interpretations.
D.T. Suzuki, who was instrumental in introducing Zen and Zen swordsmanship to the West, spoke of “the Sword of No-Abode” (Zen and Japanese Culture, pp. 170-182). In The Black Pearl, I have already indicated that this is a reference to a key Sufic concept: Nonspace, la makaan, which is the domain of Divinity (pp. 35-6). (“The Sword of No-Abode” would then translate as al-sayf al-la makaan.)
René Guénon tells us that the sword and the lance (and by extension the arrow and the staff) are symbols for the World Axis (Symbols of Sacred Science, p. 183). The sword, the World Axis, and the World Tree are interchangeable symbols in the Chinese tradition, as indeed in all traditions:
The World Tree is described in several Chinese mythical narratives under two distinct names:
- Kien Mu, the Erect Tree, naturally evokes the World Axis;
- Jian Mu, the Builder Tree (of the World), also refers to the World Axis, for Jian equally means the sword, the Axis symbol par excellence. [Emphases added.]
In his treatise on Cosmic Unification (al-Ittihad al-Kawn, translated as The Universal Tree and the Four Birds), the famous Sufi, Ibn Arabi, equates the Universal Tree (al-shajara al-kulli) or World Axis with the Perfect Human Being. (Ibn Arabi’s other “tree,” the World Tree or Cosmic Tree (Shajarat al-Kawn),
also symbolizes the Universal Human.) In addition, the Tree stands for
eternal life, and is called the Tree of Life in some traditions. Another
name for it is the Tree of Light (A. J. Wensinck, Tree and Bird as Cosmological Symbols in Western Asia (1921)). That light beam
(also called the Ray of Creation) is, in Sufism, the first-created
light, the First Intellect (Universal Mind) or the Light of Mohammed
(these occur in the Prophet’s own Sayings). This is the light that is
referred to in Genesis: “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was
light” (Gen. 1:3).
For
Islam, the olive is the central tree, The World Axis, a symbol of
Universal Man and of the Prophet. The ‘Blessed Tree’ is associated with
light, since its oil is used as lamp fuel. (The Penguin Dictionary of Symbols, p. 716.)
And
this brings us to another part of the Light Verse: “[The lamp] is
lighted from a Blessed Tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the
West [hence of the center], whose light would well-nigh shine out even
if it were not lit by fire” [hence self-luminous] (24:35).
The first Arabic letter, the Alif, also represents the Cosmic Pillar because of its shape. I have already dealt with the relationship between the Alif and the ancient Egyptian Djedi or Djed Column, from which the Jedi take their name, elsewhere on this site. Here, I will merely recall that Alif is the first letter of God’s Name of Majesty, Allah.
... when God... wanted to create Muhammad, He made appear a light from His light... God created an immense crystal-like column of light, that was inwardly and outwardly translucent, and within it was the essence of Muhammad. (Re 7:172)
—Sahl al-Tustari
(on the Light of Mohammed, in the first Sufi Commentary on the Koran)
To summarize, the following symbols are all equivalent:
Lightsaber/Sword ~ World Axis ~ World Tree (of Light) ~ Perfect Human ~ Alif ~ Djedi Column.
Djedi Column with “cutaway” view showing “magic fluid” within; white lightsabers; Axis of the Universe: the Alif on a backdrop of 10,000 galaxies (courtesy NASA Hubble Ultra Deep Field)
Finally, it is this Column of Light that acts as a “tractor beam” or elevator that draws the Sufi “up” in his Ascension (miraj)
towards God. And it is the Five Daily Prayers that, if properly
performed, facilitate this action, for as the Prophet has said, the
Prayer is Ascension. Since I have already dealt with this topic in “Superheroes and Sufism” (under the heading “Adam Strange”), I shall not repeat myself here.
The Jedi
The Jedi is an order comprised of warrior monks. Their pros can use psychokinesis (move material objects with their minds).
The excerpt below gives a good idea about the Order:
Where did Lucas get his idea for the Jedi?
In
a Discovery Channel documentary entitled “The Science of Star Wars,”
Lucas reveals…that his idea came from studying the Shao-Lin monks of
China. The Shao-Lin monks are priests known for originating and becoming
the masters of the martial arts. [The martial arts of East Asia are
said to have come about when wandering monks found the need to protect
themselves against bandits.] Their fighting skills were legendary
throughout the land of China.
Not
only are the Shao-Lin monks skillful fighters, they were also men who
mastered the use of the Chi force. As previously mentioned, Chi is
believed to be the cosmic energy that flows through all things including
individuals. The Shao-Lin monks teach that through altering one’s
consciousness in meditation and other exercises, one can tap into the
power of the Chi resident in each individual and use it to perform
superhuman feats. [It is also utilized in the Japanese Aikido and the
Chinese Tai Ji Quan martial arts.]
Although
Sufis are by and large a peaceable lot, there have been times in
history when they were forced into combat. One example is the famous
Shaykh Shamil, who was forced to defend his Caucasian people against
Russian onslaught in the 19th century. Such examples are rare, however,
and although comparisons have been drawn between the Jedi and Islamic
chivalry (futuwwat), the Sufis did not develop independent
martial arts techniques of their own. It’s not surprising that Sufism
met with the martial arts in places like Indonesia and Malaysia, where
Chinese influence is strongly felt, and Sufis developed a local form of
martial art called silat.
Zen
favors intuition over intellect, and not surprisingly, the Jedi
exercises are also based on cessation of mental activities and greater
reliance on sensory and intuitive cognition, which means minimizing the
interference and disturbances created by the ego, the Base Self:
(In
this connection, it may be useful to remember that some blind persons
can navigate by clicking their tongues or tapping their canes and
listening intently for subtle differences in the echos, just like bats
do. It’s called echolocation. See this, for example.)
In
addition to their martial arts, the Jedi have a philosophy of life.
Their code of conduct is summarized in the two versions of the Jedi
Code:
1.
Jedi are the guardians of peace in the galaxy. Jedi use their powers to
defend and to protect. Jedi respect all life, in any form. Jedi serve
others rather than ruling over them, for the good of the galaxy. Jedi
seek to improve themselves through knowledge and training.
2. There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force.
Replace “Jedi” with “Sufis” (and “the Force” with “God”) in the above, and you wouldn’t know the difference.
Darth Vader
The
whole Star Wars saga is based around the fall and eventual redemption
of Anakin Skywalker. After he succumbs to the Dark Side, he becomes
Darth Vader, the “dark father” (from the Dutch word for “father”). The
Emperor Palpatine (formerly a Sith Lord named Darth Sidious—or should I
say Dark Insidious), who subverts Anakin, represents the external
principle of evil. But Anakin’s greatest foe lies within: his Base Self
(12:53). And as Darth Vader, he becomes the Base Self personified.
The
tragedy of Anakin/Darth Vader, especially as it unfolds through
Episodes 2 and 3, ranks as a classic case study of the Base Self. Other
villains in the movies are also of the same nature: for instance, Lucas
has said of Darth Maul, the Satan-faced Sith in Episode 1, that “he’s
the evil within us,” and that he and Darth Vader are “essentially the
same.” But of course, the main story revolves around the latter.
Here are a few highlights:
The first major incident is Anakin’s revenge massacre of an entire village:
Here comes the Great Temptation from the Master of Deceit:
The
external principle of evil, represented by the Chancellor/Emperor Dark
Insidious, cunningly recruits Anakin for his designs (Anakin’s Base Self
“makes a pact with the devil”). Anakin is now ready to massacre all the
Jedis at the temple:
And now, “the birth of Darth Vader:”
Finally,
“Darth Vader’s redemption:” the Base Self is redeemed only at the end
of Episode 6, when it rebels against the devil and does the opposite of
its bidding, casting it to the bottom of the Axial Pillar, as shown
below. In the moment of his death, his mask is removed, his humanity is
restored, and he says that he is “saved.”
There
are lessons in this example for all human beings. The Master never
tired of telling people that the Base Self has two tricks up its sleeve
that it uses to trap even the best: Illicit Gain and Illicit Lust. He
said:
The first is: if you know that the tea I offer you is bought with illicit earnings, don’t drink it.
Don’t
touch what is prohibited. If you fall victim to hunger and thirst, and
there is money by the thousands strewn on the street when you go out,
and you’re hungry, still don’t take it.
The
second is very dangerous. It is worse than the first. Lust is such a
powerful drive that it can destroy a human being if not used properly. I
call this ‘the two fire channels’ (in man and woman).
You’re
single. Until you get married, until you marry a suitable woman [or
vice versa], everything is ruled out. She can come and sit on your leg,
she can arouse your lust beyond endurance, yet you should still see her
as your mother or your sister. …
You can’t find this in books. You won’t find any of
this in any book. … Whoever pulls in these two brakes—in terms of
illicit eating and drinking, and lust—Sainthood will be yours
immediately.
(The Teachings of a Perfect Master, pp. 123-4.)
This
is valuable advice: neither total celibacy, nor wanton lust, but
divinely ordained and socially approved marriage with the opposite sex.
First you wed them, then you bed them. (And this calls for
considerations beyond those of casual sex.)
Curb
these two cravings (of Unclean Gain and Unclean Lust), said the Master a
thousand times, and the Base Self will be at your mercy. You will be
the victor, and it will be the vanquished.
Luke Skywalker
Anakin’s
son, Luke (G. Lucas?) Skywalker is, by luck or by fate, everything his
father isn’t. According to Lucas, Star Wars is “about how young Anakin
Skywalker became evil and then was redeemed by his son.” Luke does not
succumb to the Dark Side of the Force. Lucas: “it’s only in the last
act—when he throws his sword down and says, ‘I’m not going to fight
this’—that he makes a more conscious, rational decision. And he does it
at the risk of his life because the Emperor is going to kill him. It’s
only that way that he is able to redeem his father.”
Luke does not fall into the trap of the Great Temptation. When Darth Vader tries to tempt him in the same way he
was once tempted by Darth Sidious, Luke refuses. Lucas again: “The film
is ultimately about the dark side and the light side, and those sides
are designed around compassion and greed. … These are the two sides—the
good force and the bad force.” It is greed that causes the desire to
obtain things in Unclean ways.
Luke’s name means “Light Ascension”—Luke is from Lux
(see above). And who can walk in the sky other than the Ascended? He is
trained, first by Obi-wan Kenobi and then by the grand master Yoda.
After his death, Obi-wan’s spirit continues to guide him. In Sufism,
likewise, it is not unheard-of for a disciple to be trained by the
spirit of a dead (sometimes even long-deceased) master. These are called
Uwaysi, after Uways al-Qarani, a contemporary of the Prophet who loved him very much, but never got to see him with earthly eyes.
Yoda
Yoda
is, apparently, far and away the grand master of all the Jedi. He
conforms to the Jungian archetype of the Wise Old Man. In Sufism, his
direct correlate is the Sufi master, while in other paths he fulfills
the role of the guru or spiritual mentor.
Some
aspirants in the spiritual path who cannot find a Sufi master in the
flesh are trained by Khidr, “the Green One” (after the color of his
garments). Long ago, the tradition goes, Khidr drank from the Water of
Immortality and was stripped of his human attributes. Now, he wanders
the earth and helps those in distress who call out to him. In addition,
he trains eligible students who cannot otherwise find a living master.
Now
Yoda, too, has green skin, and his lightsaber is colored green (the
color of spring, of nature, and of Islam). And while he is not immortal
like Khidr, he has lived hundreds of years. So from a Sufic point of
view, Yoda can be considered as both: either as a model of a living
master, or else as representing Khidr.
The following video emphasizes Yoda’s function as teacher:
On the other hand, the video below brings out his warrior aspect:
We do not have any records of Sufis engaging in remote weight-lifting
(psychokinesis) in this manner. We do, however, have the following
account concerning the Grand Shaykh Abdul-Qadir of Jilan (Abdulqader
Gilani):
Sheikh Umru Osman Sairifini and Sheikh Abdul-Haq Harini deposed as follows:
On the third day of the month of Safar, in the year 555 of the Flight [02/13/1160 AD], we were in the presence of our Master [Sayed Abdul-Qadir] in his school. He rose and put on wooden sandals, and performed an ablution. Then he performed two [cycles of] prayers and gave a loud shout, throwing one sandal into the air, when it seemed to disappear. With a further cry the Master threw the second sandal into the air and this also vanished from our sight. None of those who were present dared to question him about the event.
Thirty days after this incident a caravan arrived in Baghdad from the East. Its members said that they had some gifts for the Master. We consulted him, and he allowed us to accept the presents. The members of the caravan gave us some silken and some other cloth and a pair of sandals which were the same ones which the Master had hurled from him. Their account was as follows:
On the third day of the month of Safar, that day being a
Sunday, we were on the road with our caravan when there was a sudden
Arab attack, under two chiefs. The robbers killed some of our number and
plundered the caravan. They immediately entered a nearby forest for the purpose of distributing the loot. We survivors reassembled at the edge of the forest. It occurred to us that we could invoke the aid of the Sayed in our calamity, for we had no recourse and no means wherewith to continue our journey. We resolved to offer him presents in token of thanksgiving, should we at least arrive safely in Baghdad—an improbability as the situation then seemed to be.
As soon as we had made this decision, we were alarmed by one, and then another, cry which echoed through the glades. We concluded that the first band of Arabs had been attacked by a second one, and that a fight between them would now follow. Soon afterward a party from the bandits came to us and said that there had been a disaster. They begged us to accept our property back. We proceeded to the place at which our merchandise had been collected by the Arabs, and found that their two captains were lying dead—each with a wooden sandal near his head.
It appears to us indubitable that the Master, having perceived the calamity of the caravaneers, moved by a desire to aid them, had been able to project his sandals in such a way that the leaders of the band, the ultimately guilty parties, were killed.
Preserved by us as a matter of record and committed to writing in the presence of Almighty God, the Distinguisher and Requiter of truth and falsehood.
(Idries Shah, The Sufis, pp. 369-70.)
Perhaps, then, such a person does not need to levitate objects.
Sources
I
am indebted to the many sources, mentioned or unmentioned, that I made
use of in preparing this article. In terms of Islamic articles, two
stand out:
- Mahmoud Shelton,”Star Wars: a Tale of Spiritual Chivalry,” The Muslim Magazine, Summer 1999 (Vol. 2, No. 3), pp. 30-34.
- Irfan M. Rydhan, “Saints, Sufis and Star Wars,” Q-News, June 2005, pp. 36-38.
Quotes from George Lucas are taken from “Bill Moyers interviews George Lucas,” Time, April 26, 1999 (Vol. 153, Issue 16), pp. 92-94