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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Michael Tree" data-source="post: 2266168" data-attributes="member: 1455">I wrote the following in response to your question in another thread:The Jedi code seems to be based much more on Buddhism than on Taoism, though the two are similar in many ways.Taoism teaches a person to go with the flow, to accept and embrace change.  Too much intellectual thought, too much striving, and too much stubbornness, force and desire make a person lose contact with the Tao. Two of Taoism's fundementals are intuition and flexibility.    It uses water as a prominent symbol: Water flows around obstacles, rather than trying to force its way through them, yet it is the strongest element, able to erode anything given time.  The Jedi "letting themselves go" and giving in to the force is very Taoist, as is their trusting in their feelings, rather than trying to intellectually work through everything. There are also very strong elements of Buddhism in the Jedi.  One of its core tenets is that desire and attachment inevitably bring pain, confusion, and conflict, and blind you to the world.  Rise above desire and attachment, and center yourself to clear yourself of all your preconceptions and emotional blindspots, and think and feel clearly.  The aim isn't to become a coldly logical vulcan, as some have suggested on ROTS threads, but to become a calm and peaceful person who acts according to his wisdom and clear perceptions,  unlike people who struggle with their conflicting desires and respond in knee-jerk reactions according to their preconceptions.These are gross simplifications, of course, and there are a lot of different forms of Taoism and Buddhism that differ, but these should be sufficient to understand the origins of the Jedi anyway.  (They're oversimplifications, but Lucas based Jedi on oversimplifications, so they fits. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )There isn't any "chosen one" symbology at all in Taoism that I know of.Balance is a very important part of Taoism.  Yin (passive, feminine, dark, water) and Yang (forceful, masculine, bright, fire) are in balance with each other, but just as the Jedi focus on the light, so do Taoists tend to focus on the importance of Yin.Perhaps the sith push the dark side of the force to an extreme, imbalancing it, while perhaps the Jedi are becoming set in their ways and are gradually losing their humility and flexibility.  The Jedi also are trying to keep the galaxy static and unchanging, by enforcing the status quo.  By letting the galaxy move forward on its own course, making the Jedi retreat to into hiding to live in simple solitude, ultimakely bringing about the destruction of the Sith, perhaps Anakin did bring about balance.In the prequels, Qui Gon and Yoda are much better Taoists than Obi Wan.  Qui Gon is resigned and warm, and trusts his fate to the force, whereas Obi Wan tends to be more crotchety and forceful.  By EpIV he's gained a lot of wisdom, and has the peaceful detatchment that he lacked in the prequels.  He accepts where the force takes him, rather than trying to push his way to where he wants to be.Yoda did likewise, though he was much wiser in the prequels than Obi Wan.  He did learn to appreciate simplicity though, which is another Taoist principle.Edit: That's Yang, not Yand.</blockquote>

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