Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back – “For my ally is the Force ” (Force Theme, Yoda’s Theme). Internet resource at http://bit.ly/1hpjB2F.
“YODA: Now…the stone. Feel it.
Luke concentrates on trying to lift the top rock. It rises
a few feet, shaking under the strain. But, distracted by
Artoo’s frantic beeping, Luke loses his balance and finally
collapses. Yoda jumps clear.
YODA: Concentrate!
LUKE: Oh, no. We’ll never get it out now.
YODA: So certain are you. Always with you it cannot be done. Hear you
nothing that I say?
LUKE: Master, moving stones around is one thing. This is totally
different.
YODA: No! No different! Only different in your mind. You must unlearn
what you have learned.
LUKE: (focusing, quietly) All right, I’ll give it a try.
YODA: No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try.
Luke closes his eyes and concentrates on thinking the ship
out.
Slowly, the X-wing’s nose begins to rise above the water.
It hovers for a moment and then slides back, disappearing once
again.
LUKE: (panting heavily) I can’t. It’s too big.
YODA: Size matters not. Look at me. Judge me by my size, do you? Hm?
Mmmm.
Luke shakes his head.
YODA: And well you should not. For my ally in the Force. And a
powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. It’s energy
surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we…(Yoda pinches
Luke’s shoulder)…not this crude matter. (a sweeping gesture) You must
feel the Force around you. (gesturing) Here, between you…me…the
tree…the rock…everywhere! Yes, even between this land and that
ship!
LUKE: (discouraged) You want the impossible.
Quietly Yoda turns toward the X-wing fighter. With his eyes
closed and his head bowed, he raises his arm and points at the
ship.
Soon, the fighter rises above the water and moves forward
as Artoo beeps in terror and scoots away.
The entire X-wing moves majestically, surely, toward the
shore. Yoda stands on a tree root and guides the fighter
carefully down toward the beach.
Luke stares in astonishment as the fighter settles down
onto the shore. He walks toward Yoda.
LUKE: I don’t…I don’t believe it.
YODA: That is why you fail.”
Most of the world’s philosophers and religions have spoken in some form or other, about love. But language is characteristically evolving as a process of communication and relativistic as a tool of communication, which leaves it sometimes grossly inadequate in expressing our thoughts and understandings of the workings of the world. How would people for example, describe a state of (perceived) psychosis of one that is not in psychosis but of an alternate reality, inaccessible by others who are themselves limited by their own senses? And to what extent is that alternate reality, alternate? Would it not just – be – in a world of 96% unknown from biology to quantum science [1,2,3,4]?
Some of the most influential and renowned minds have tried to use the inherited apparatus of language, to explain their perspectives, of their understanding of life, of how things are. But due to the nature of language that is sometimes slow to evolve in order to iterate depth of insight, they have had their thoughts literarised because there are few more efficient means to communicate thought than through language. Subsequently words become signifiers for what is, and what is, is also relative to each individual’s expression circumscribed by culture. With time in language, conflation leads to confusion where in the literary canon, ‘love’ has come to accrue other meanings, in connotation with other concepts ranging from ‘god’ to ‘nature’.
‘Love’ percolating through the vocabularies of the world, the word, its concept and meaning, fracture.
Many people would most of all attribute love as something grounded in human emotions, that is most often seen in a dichotomous distinction from ‘hate’.
Consider the postulates:
“Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.” ~ Euripides (c.480–406 BCE)
“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.” ~ Aristotle (c.384–322 BCE)
“Where there is love there is life.” ~ Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)
But how about the postulate that – “infinite life begins where love ends” – and in so doing, the dichotomies in-built in the system of language regarding ‘love’ is deconstructed?
Consider:
“The best soldier does not attack. The superior fighter succeeds without violence. The greatest conqueror wins without struggle. The most successful manager leads without dictating. This is intelligent non aggressiveness. This is called the mastery of men.” Lao Tse, Daodejing.
Adding to Lao Tse’s philosophy – too many people do, when they should only be. And in being, they do. This thought is reminiscent of a saying by the character Yoda, in a film produced by Kurtz et. al [5], “Do. Or do not. There is no try.”
In that movie, the character Luke Skywalker, speaks notably in comparatives and gradations.
[0:20] “I can’t. It is too big”
[1:16] “You want the impossible”
The character Yoda for the most part does not speak in or of, comparatives, where entities in this construct can also stand in dichotomy to each other.
Across a variety of contexts in its current use and connotations, the word ‘love’ and its concept can be argued to be not only highly overrated and misunderstood, but abused to the means and ends of political agenda, ranging from relations between individuals to relations between nations.
Infinite life begins where love ends.
The individual who loves, is one who speaks nought of it.
References
1. Flam, F. 1994. Hints of a language in junk DNA, Science, 266(5189):1320
2. Iyer, N. 2011. Decoding non-coding DNA: trash or treasure? Resonance, 16(4):333-340.
3. Mazure, A. / Le Brun, V. 2011. Matter, Dark Matter, and Anti-Matter: In Search of the Hidden Universe. Springer.
4. Pretzl, K. 2001. In search of the Dark Matter in the universe, SPATIUM 7, Association Pro-ISSI (International Space Science Institute), Bern, Switzerland.
5. Kurtz, G. / Kershner, I. / Brackett, L. / Kasdan, L. / Lucas, G. 1980. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Lucasfilm, 20th Century Fox.