Master Yoda’s Wisdom: The Force Is With Us All

I recently had a bit of an epiphany while watching a clip from The Empire Strikes Back, which many consider to be the best film of the original Star Wars trilogy.

It was the scene where Master Yoda is training young Luke Skywalker in the swamps of the lone planet Dagobah. He is teaching him to use the Force, and how to move objects with his mind.

Before Luke is what seems like an impossible task — lifting his sunken spacecraft from the waters of the swamp.

Luke doesn’t believe he can do it, but at Master Yoda’s emphatic encouragement, he tries — and fails.

Frustrated and disillusioned, he gives up.

It is then that Yoda shows it is, in fact, possible. He quiets his mind and focuses, and then a miracle occurs — using the power of the Force, Yoda slowly raises the sunken spacecraft from the swamp water and elevates it in the air.

Luke stares in astonishment. Lesson learned.

There were some key things that Yoda said during this scene that have always struck me.

The first is when Luke says he will “try” to use the Force to raise his spacecraft.

Yoda quickly rebukes him, saying:

“Try not! Do or do not, there is no try.”

This is actually a motivational quote that I keep in view.

I’m not a huge Star Wars fanatic (I mean, I like it well enough), but it’s just such a direct, transcending thought.

Ultimately, you either do something — or you don’t.

And often the deciding factor as to whether or not we do it is simply the level of effort we put in — which is a byproduct of our faith that our goals are possible to be achieved.

Without the faith and without the desire to push through — our efforts usually fail.

And often, we deceive ourselves with “trying.” We commit to try, but we don’t commit to succeed, and this ultimately only means you are not actually committed to success, but to the possibility of failure.

So you must set your sights onto the actual target, and not the attempt to set your sights on it.

But it is a comforting thought that for many things in life, if we actually set our sights on our goal and commit to achieving it by doing whatever it takes, success is most often the result.

There were some other things Yoda said that were intriguing as well. In lecturing Luke about the nature of the Force, he says:

“For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you. Here. Between you, me, the tree, the rock. Everywhere. Yes, even between the land and the ship.”

These are my own sort of mystical thoughts, but in esoteric teachings there is the concept of assuming “god-forms.”

A god-form is essentially an archetype of something that has an attribute you want to embody and possess, in order to empower you.

If you assume the god-form of your own divine self, you affirm your own power to do amazing things. Even god-like things.

Assuming the god-form of your divine self can be much like believing there is a “force” that exists that you are one with, by which you can do amazing things.

Much like “the Force” in Star Wars.

You can believe in it, be one with it, imagine it within yourself and your environment, and through meditative techniques, feel as though it flows through you and empowers you.

In believing you are empowered — you actually become empowered.

You can feel energized, motivated, refreshed and renewed — and then use that new energy to not merely try, but to actually do the things you wish to accomplish.

This is the power of “the Force” in our everyday lives that Master Yoda so eloquently described.

And it can be yours — if you want it.