Amazing Grace
feminine in its gentleness as well as in its open and creative nature. Comparisons between the Force and the Tao, or the "Way," have existed since the beginning, and there is also a parallel in that both can be likened to water. Each are transparent, provide great nourishment for those who partake of them, and are immensely powerful. The Force ebbs and flows about the galaxy, and as such, it is obviously something one must ease into rather than fight, a current to be swam with rather than against. As Qui-Gon Jinn puts it, "Just relax. The Force will guide us." It is the bouyancy of the galaxy, for all one has to do is let go and float. On the contrary, the dark side is trying to hold one's self up by their own efforts, and upon seeing how clinging to the water only results in the opposite intended effect, it tries to drown as many others as it can.
While it is true that lines in the sand are constantly being drawn dividing supernatural grace from the natural variety, it is perhaps fair to suggest that the only real difference between the two besides nomenclature is in fact levels of intensity. Everyone has had inspired moments where life seems to happen of it's own volition rather than being forced or contrived by personal will. As John Keats put it of his own art, "If poetry comes not as naturally as leaves to a tree, it had best not come at all." The best artists have always known when to get out of their own way, as well as how to let inspiration define their work rather than prespiration. In "An Introduction to Zen Buddhism," D.T. Suzuki wrote much the same thing about life in general, noting, "Life is an art, and like perfect art it should be self-forgetting; there ought not to be any trace of effort or painful feeling. Life, according to Zen, ought to be lived as a bird flies through the air or a fish swims in the water. As soon as there are signs of elaboration, a man is doomed, he is no more a free being."
Very much the inspiration for Zen, this is why the philosophy surrounding the Tao goes quite far in fusing the two kinds of grace, and its greatest expression is in no expression at all. This is known as "wu-wei," loosely
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