In Star Wars Obi Ben – Kenobi said to Luke Skywalker “May the Force be with you.”  The idea of ‘The Force’ stayed with me and the understanding that this ‘Force’ is everywhere which gave the Jedi (and Sith) their power. This is a fictional story but the idea of this philosphy came mainly from Lao Tzu and his teachings of ‘The Tao’ and to an extent the Sufi understanding of Jihad which George Lucas (that guy behind Star Wars) and his colleagues read up on.

When we look at this (our) Universe there are certain natural laws (how plants grow / animals work with each other) / laws of creation ( evolution of plant and animals as well as stars) / scientific laws (laws of physics and how our 3D reality is linked to the 4D/ 5D reality) that we do not fully understand but they are there waiting to be uncovered and as a living and thinking species in this three-dimensional reality our understanding of these laws/ideas is a must if we are to progress not just technologically but also spiritually.

Star Wars and what I understood of The Force made me open up to study Taoism, Sufism and other similar philosophies and helped me understand my beliefs about myself and others better – for example that we all have a capacity for goodness as well destructive capacities within us (basically both good and evil) – I am still learning and at times its difficult to understand for me how some people remain so self-absorbed in themselves that they remain aloof from their real selves – but its not my place to tell them to know themselves better thats their choice, all I and others can do is simply to keep learning and living lives that are beneficial to others and hope in turn others will also live beneficial lives in regards to others.

The ‘Self’ is something that is much bigger and greater than the labels we have taken on – from the moment we are born, as a baby separated from our mother we cry and feel a certain deeper pain of that separation not just from our mothers body but before we are born and we come from another more higher reality… At birth/ separation we are given a name, family, tribe, society, religion, race, culture – so many things to help us define ourselves in this reality to which we are born in, so many labels… and then we take on more labels of our work, education, politics etc…

Yet how many of still feel empty?

 Life is about discovering our ‘Noble Self’ and that yes we can be good/kind/caring/benevolent but at the same time within there lies a darker more base side that each of us should acknowledge and understand rather than reject or deny and lie to ourselves that its not there – and from this grow ourselves as more balanced individuals regardless of our tribal, religious, racial labels.

 As human beings we come from something much more greater and purer and regardless of our wealth / power / knowledge / wisdom etc – all of us will die.

And all of us should leave something that will help others, maybe even plant a simple seed, which may become a tree?

Lao – Tzu (also known as Laozi and Lao-Tze) was a Chinese philosopher credited with founding the cosmo-philosophical system of Taoism. He is known as the author of the Tao-Te-Ching, the work which exemplifies his thought processes.

The name by which he is known is not his personal name but a respectful title which means`Old Man’ or `Old Teacher (like Shaykh in Arabic)’ and many speculate whether an individual by that name ever existed or whether Lao-Tzu teachings are that of many different philosophers.