To Be a Jedi: Part 2

itself in various forms, but usually, it is indeed unconditional. As Campbell points out, it is indiscriminate, and caters to everyone, regardless of their individuality. In Christianity this is known as "agape," or love of one's neighbor, and the Buddhist counterpart is "karuna," which amounts to the same thing. In either case, it does not matter who one's neighbor is. Compassion is probably the most stressed in Buddhism, however, and the Jedi seem to be operating from that mindset. It is all about awakening - specifically awakening to an entire universe of beings. The love is not localized, for in the contemplation of the universe, personal desire has been stretched very thin. An incarnation like the Dalai Lama, for instance, would have unconditional love for every single person living in the state of Florida.

The taboos on attachment and possession are likewise to be found heavily emphasized in Buddhism. While it is true that Christ told his disciples that anyone who would follow him would have to give all their wealth to the poor and even forsake family life, it is more important in the East because of this profound sense of the impermanent and transitory nature of all things. Yet this is not so much a command or moral imperative in those traditions, rather an inner realization that clinging to things destined to fall apart causes suffering. This is outlined specifically in the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha.

Now once these ideas from India get incorporated into Chinese Taoism and finally Japanese Zen, they take on a clearer and actually more affirmative stance. For instance, in the Platform Sutra of the sixth patriarch of Zen, Hui-neng explains that everything in the universe is of one suchness - what's called in Sanskrit "tathata." While no one can know the ultimate nature of this suchness because they are such an intrinsic part of it, Hui-Neng nevertheless points out that there is simply nothing to cling to, nor even anyone to do the clinging! In this common sense approach, there is no real need to enforce not having attachments, because at the root, there is no one to possess or be possessed. So it has nothing to do with wandering off into the wilderness and renouncing the world. On the contrary, as Stephen Mitchell delightfully puts it in his commentary on a few lines in the Tao Te Ching that speak of a master having

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