Calm Discernment
During his training on Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker asks Yoda, “How will I know the good side from the bad?” Yoda answers, “You will know when you are calm, at peace.” At each stage of his Jedi journey, Luke’s experiences confirm Yoda’s wisdom. Luke only knows the right thing to do when he is calm and at peace, not fearful and panicked.
Later in The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker disregards Yoda’s call for caution and goes to Bespin because he is afraid that his friends will die. Because he acts on fear, Luke has to confront Darth Vader before he is ready and loses. However, at the end of the duel, Luke has a moment of calm that brings clarity. He knows it would be better to risk death by falling into the pit below than to surrender to the dark side. Panic got him into this crisis, but peace gets him out of it.
In Return of the Jedi, Luke once again confronts Vader and experiences the contrasting outcomes of fear and calm. When Vader realizes Luke has a sister, Luke attacks him in anger because he is afraid Leia could join the dark side. But when Luke disarms Vader, he calms down and discerns that his enemy is not his father, but the Emperor who has enslaved and manipulated him. Choosing peace over panic, Luke throws away his lightsaber and tells the Emperor he will neither kill his father nor join the dark side.
Years later, in The Last Jedi, Luke tells Rey of another time he acted on fear and panic. Fearing that Ben Solo would turn to the dark side and “bring destruction and pain,” Luke panicked and ignited his lightsaber to kill him: “For the briefest moment of pure instinct, I thought I could stop it.” But when Luke confronts Ben again on Crait, he has calmly discerned that he needs to “[use] the Force for knowledge and defense, [not] attack,” just as Yoda taught him. With his advanced knowledge of the Force, Luke projects an image of himself to defend the Resistance fighters by distracting Ben. The intense effort kills Luke, but Rey senses that he died not in “sadness or pain” but with “peace and purpose.”
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Characters: Luke Skywalker
Films: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back / Episode VI: Return of the Jedi / Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
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Concepts: fear / focus and mindfulness / knowledge / war and peace
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