Lesson 4: Introduction to the Force – Part 1: Ethics and the Force
Original journal entry from July 15, 2025 – Response to Lesson 4: Introduction to The Force (Part 1: Ethics and the Force). This was my exploration of the Force's neutrality, its inherent flow/direction, the user's ethical responsibility, and how meditation helps discern and partner with its intended path.
If balance with the Force creates harmony and imbalance creates chaos, then there exists an opportunity in the Force for right and wrong or good and evil. However, can the Force in itself be ethical or is there only an ethical dimension to it that is dependent on the user? From my experience and content I’ve consumed, what I can say for almost certain is that the Force existed long before its users did, exists separately from its users, and will continue on long after any users will be around to use it. The Force just is.
Therefore, the ethics must be attributed to the user and not to the Force alone. It makes me think of a similar view of money; Money in itself is not evil or good but rather it can be used to do good or evil in the world. The Force can be used to do things that benefit others or to bring about great harm to others. In this way the Force is neutral and does not necessarily move in the direction of light or dark, good or evil, on its own.
There seems to be a set of parameters in the Force in that as it is available, it also has the one direction for the way it flows. Is the Force all-knowing? No, the Force just flows in the direction of where everything happens that needs to happen. Some might refer to this as the will of the universe but I’m not so sure whether there is a conscious will. It is more a plan for the bringing about of pre-destined events. A plan, the effect, that has been set in motion by a cause.
From this perspective, I have to believe that the pre-destined flow of the Force should only be considered as a “Plan A,” with infinitely more plans that course correct when the intended flow is interrupted or pushed slightly off track. It is not a one hundred percent pre-destined course of events. But paradoxically, what happens in the end was that which was supposed to happen.
As a Force user, it is up to me to discern what Plan A is as much as it pertains to my time with it with the opportunity to act on this knowledge. This way, I am flowing with the Force in the direction it is headed. Partnering with the Force, I will automatically be moving on my intended path. This would be an example of using the Force for good, while someone discerning the intended direction of the force and intentionally interrupting or causing a slight deviation would be considered using the Force for selfish and/or evil purposes.
On my own, I cannot see or know the future. But in meditating in the Force, I can discover the direction in which it is flowing. I may even be able to discern its future destination or multiple destinations in the near future, while slight deviations are possible. Some destinations may only be reachable if others are reached first. In flowing with the Force I may discern an action that I can take to make a course correction while, conversely, not taking the action may cause the flow to move further off course until someone is willing to flow with it.
So then the Force does not discriminate against Force users, as anyone can learn to know its flow and use it for good or evil. In this way, there can be an ethical dimension to the Force; it does not show partiality or help certain users over others. The more experienced user may be able to use more of its power and do more good or to do more evil than the inexperienced user.
Umalohókan
House of Twin Suns
TM: Carlos Martinez
"You don't have to see the whole staircase just to take the first step."
(Signature links to IP Journal, Apprentice Journal, A.div Journal, and Degree Tracker omitted for brevity — these were forum navigation links at the time.)
The following user(s) said Thank You: RosalynJ
Looking back now: This entry was a turning point in how I viewed the Force — not as inherently good or evil, but as neutral energy with direction and ethical responsibility resting on the user. It helped me reconcile Jedi teachings with my own spiritual framework while emphasizing discernment, partnership, and free will.