There are so many philosophies today that supposedly allow you to “deal” with disappointment and failure using methods that could only be called defeatist. What these philosophies essentially do is make you believe that you never wanted to succeed in the first place. You never wanted money, you never expected anything from yourself. They’re more of “sour grapes” philosophies than anything else.
They essentially mix and match different pre-accepted philosophies in the right dose to make sure you’re never disappointed in life - by making you not expect anything from yourself or anyone. They mostly begin with a Buddhist stance of the four principles of why unhappiness exists. Then they make you believe not to strive or achieve to be better (which Buddhism never told anyone). They make you believe in a pseudo-”Shit Happens” mentality and thereby even allowing you to deny morality very easily. “Shit happens”, you say, “and it’s not about right and wrong.”
But Gautam Buddha simply told people to deal with disappointment and not deny the fact that disappointment exists (because I still never found him saying that stealing or murdering or lying is right). Since I’m not too well-versed with Buddhism, but with the Jedi Philosophy, if you will indulge me, I shall use that as the basis of this article. Let us assume that the Jedi way is an amalgam of all these types of peace-giving philosophies that bring human beings to peace with themselevs.
The very popular phrase by Obi-Wan Kenobi to Han Solo in EP4 which made a significant proportion of the British population say that they follow the Jedi religion was, “In my experience, there’s no such thing as luck.”
And you’ll find many such statements from other Jedi, “Nothing happens by coincidence. Our meeting him was the will of the force.”
Too many people assume this to mean that the universe has a pre-determined fate for everyone and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. They think that Jedi’s claim that whatever happens, happens due to things out of our control, and they use this as a way to shift blame away from themselves. If there was ever an example of how simply one word (in our case, ‘fate’), can be interpreted in two diametrically extreme manners, then this was it.
The Jedi Way teaches people that what happens does not happen by coincidence or by random chance, but due to their own actions and decisions. In fact, the Jedi Way places a lot more responsibility on any one individual than even most contemporary religions who almost always have an escape route by pointing towards a host of artifacts like Devils and Demons, and such.
So when something goes wrong, it happens due to a wrong decision or a wrong action by an individual or individuals (but never due to a supernatural entity called “shit”, as is commonly believed). Jedi are told to deal with the fact that they made a mistake and to improve themselves. They are told not to linger over their mistakes or to torture themselves with guilt, but they are never told to give up expectation so that they never feel sorry. The expectation to do the right thing is always there. And it cannot be denied. You cannot run away from it. No ideology allows you to give up moral responsibility for your actions.
Again, here we must differentiate temptation from expectation. Is it wrong to expect more money? Hell no! Is it wrong to expect more respect. Again, never! Then what is wrong? It is wrong to demand more money or more respect when you have done nothing to contribute to them. This is something no ideology allows. And people conveniently use the Buddhist arguments to demand this by saying, “Everyone has temptation.” And a human being is separated from the animal kingdom in being able to reject temptation.
A dog cannot help himself when he sees food. It is in his system. He cannot resist temptation. The Human Being, was given the power to reject temptation and hence the expectation that he/she will reject it. The point is that everyone is allowed to be the richest person in the world. Everyone has the opportunity. Philosophies are very democratic and capitalist. The more you work, the more you contribute, you’re allowed to reap the benefits. So never ever reject your ambitions because some philosophy tells you to not have them.
When you fail, you must accept that you could not live up to your expectations. Again, never say that what happened was out of your control. That is not what a Jedi is permitted. You’re supposed to deal with failure, accept it and move it, but never reject that it was in fact a failure in the first place.
And now, is it wrong to have expectation? Absolutely not! Expectation is embedded in the very fabric of the universe itself. Expectation is paramount to the functioning of the universe and the functioning of life. Regardless of whether you accept the God-based religions who have a supernatural entity called “God” who expects you to be good and will give you gifts if you live up to it, or the Buddhist religions of pragmatism saying that there’s no God (more so in this case).
Why does a planet assume the shape of minimum surface area (spherical shape) to attain a state of minimum energy? Why does energy move from a place of higher concentration to one of lower concentration? Shit does not happen. The very atoms and molecules of the universe are expected to behave good and they do so. They always attempt to attain equilibrium. Any state of unevenness is eventually broken down and equilibirum is obtained. If you were to make a hard strong cubical structure to represent a star, the star would break up into a billion pieces and would regroup under the influence of gravity to become a sphere. If “shit happens” were true, then it would just accept that the great transcendental process called shit has happened and it would stay a cube. But it does not.
This very process forms the basis that expectation is not wrong. That is what gives us life. If the universe were not to follow the properties above, them we would not be able to live today. We live because energy flows from a point of higher state to one of lower state and does “work” in the process. So the very reason you are alive is because the universe is expected to attain a state of perfection. And therefore it applies to everyone of us to fulfill the expectation to be better than what we are. And yes, failure to meet this expectation must always be called that – a failure.
Hence ambition to be better, to demand a better lifestyle, a secure society is not wrong, and never will be. If something goes wrong, then responsibility must be taken. When society turns out to be corrupt, we are a part of it. It does not happen by coincidence. When was the last time you bribed a traffic police officer? And how can you claim that corruption is incidental? No it isn’t! We – you, and me – are responsible for it. We have failed to live up to the expectations we set for ourselves (unless we stop complaining that corruption is wrong – in which case there’s nothing to worry about). But when we claim corruption is wrong, then we must actively not encourage it.
So never, ever convince yourself that expecting anything better than what you have is wrong. What is really wrong is to expect it when you are unwilling to take the responsibility yourself. If you want others to be not corrupt, but must be allowed to give/take a bribe yourself. If you will not work harder than the person beside you but want to succeed (in terms of money, fame, etc.), then you don’t want responsibility. You’re looking for a coincidence. And as Obiwan so eloquently said, “In my experience, there is no such thing as coincidence.” This is temptation.
