In this three-part series, Dr. Kathy Lin explores Star Wars as Buddhist-Christian synthesis. We will release one post per week in this series beginning in late October.
Post 1: Stars Wars as Buddhist-Christian Synthesis
What accounts for the enduring phenomenon that is Star Wars in the Western social imaginary? Since the first movie made its appearance in 1977, follow-on movies have occurred with some regularity: the “prequel” trilogy starting in 1999, the “sequel” trilogy starting in 2015. Disney Plus, taking advantage of developments in streaming, keeps the fictional universe active with narratives about back-stories and side-chronologies: recent shows include the Mandolorian, with its breakout star Baby Yoda, officially named Grogu (“if you say so,” says High Magistrate Karga, echoing the sentiments of many viewers);[1] the Book of Boba Fett; and the adventures of Obi-Wan Kenobi with young Leia. What do we make of this phenomenon?
I believe that what gives this show – this universe – its enduring appeal is that it is at heart a religious show, tapping into some of the deepest stories Western society holds about itself.[2] I shall wish to say here that the Star Wars universe gives us a deeply Christian story; as well as a Buddhist story; as well as a republican story. These strands of influence weave deep, perhaps bedrock conceptual commitments that resonate with the lived experiences and moral worlds of its viewers. In this short commentary, then, I’ll make some indication of how the Star Wars universe is Christian, as well as Buddhist, as well as republican. The Jedi, in particular, embody a new synthesis of Buddhist-Christian worldviews that cannot be fully accounted for by either tradition singularly.
How are the Jedi Buddhist? Here we can consider the many references to the cultivation of the quality of attention and moral vision as central to action and to moral life. The training of Jedis, from master to apprentice, involves disciplined practices of the self, and is a main feature of the Star Wars world. For instance, here is Master Qui-Gon on Naboo, amidst a conflict about the taxation of trade routes, advising his apprentice: “Don’t center on your anxieties, Obi-wan. Keep your concentration here and now, where it belongs.”[3] That the ability to perceive the world aright – the quality of our moral attention – requires careful cultivation is an idea shown to us in the earliest Star Wars episodes, when an exilic Yoda guides the young Luke Skywalker in a regimen of disciplined self-formation in the murky swamps of Dagobah.[4] In the latest sequels, young Rey expends a great deal of effort upon her formation as a Jedi, training her qualities of attention and reading old Jedi texts, even when the more active engagements of Resistance fighters also make claims on her attention.
Yoda -- Credit to Wookieepedia and to Lucasfilm, Revenge of the Sith.
We can see that the movies also make frequent reference to Buddhist doctrine. Chief among the Buddhist doctrines taken up in the Star Wars universe is the idea of a holistic, organismic, metabolic dependency – a thorough-going relatedness of peoples and creatures and material things upon each other. This is the idea of interdependence, as the Buddhist idea of paticca-samuppada is put in its Anglophone translation. As Obi-wan tells the leader of the amphibious Gungans, who are reluctant to participate in the political events of the human Naboo on the planet’s surface: “you and the Naboo share a symbiont circle - what happens to one of you will affect the other, you must understand this.”[5] Holistic relations occur at different scales; Force-imbued midi-chlorians are introduced as microscopic organisms living in cooperative, mutually beneficial relation with their hosts – again, “symbionts,” as Qui-Gon explains to young Anakin.[6] In addition to the central Buddhist doctrine of interdependence, we also have frequent reference to the Noble Truths of suffering. References to pain and suffering throughout the movies are too many to be rehearsed; these ideas occur very regularly, and are voiced by Jedi and non-Jedi alike. In the summative words of C3PO, “we seem to be made to suffer. It’s our lot in life.”[7]
Reflecting Buddhist moral psychology, the Star Wars universe is adamant that several key emotions lead to the Dark Side, and to suffering: fear, anger, and hate.[8] This is a divergence in content from the Buddhist-doctrinal three poisons of greed, anger, and delusion – but phrased in the same rhetorical style, as a cluster of three negative emotions. As Master Yoda tells a very young Anakin Skywalker who misses his mother and is afraid (rather normally, I should say) to lose her: “Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”[9] The way these causal linkages are recited is reminiscent in style of the way the 10 or 12-fold chain of dependent origination is recited in traditional Buddhist formulations – even as the specific contents of those links differ. Later on in the prequel series, Yoda reiterates to a teenaged Anakin that “fear of loss is a path to the dark side.” An excessive fear of loss is to be avoided – for “attachment leads to jealousy. The shadow of greed, that is.”[10] The clusters of three negative emotions do shift in depiction over the years; in the first trilogy the three emotions emphasized were “anger, fear, and aggression.”[11] Which three emotions – which concepts – we emphasize matters – so we can say that these clusters of three are riffing off of Buddhist moral psychology, rather than following the contents of Buddhist doctrine to the letter. But nevertheless, we can see significant overlap in emphasis between the Buddhist three poisons and the Star Wars’ clusters of three. A particularly strong area of convergence concerns the moral sentiment of anger – with the guiding thought that actions that flow from a mental state of anger is a great poison to collective social life.
[1] The Mandolorian Season 3, Episode 1.
[2] I do not intend to say that “Western society” is a monolith; I use this phrasing only as short-hand for this short medium.
[3] The Phantom Menace (1999). I admit that there are magical elements like the deep and immediately intuitive feelings of “disturbances in the Force” – immediate intuitions of harm occurring to a loved one far away – that may not be endorsed by Buddhists, even ones who subscribe to the doctrine of a thorough-going interdependence. The way that meditation or concentration practices are portrayed may be taken by some viewers as culturally appropriative, a watered-down practice in line with a much-maligned “mindfulness” meditation trend. See, for instance, a version of this view in Christian Feichtinger, “Space Buddhism: The Adoption of Buddhist Motifs in Star Wars,” Contemporary Buddhism 15, no. 1 (2014), 28-43. I myself take this sort of “watering down” as simply the effects of a practice entering popular culture – a laicization.
[4] The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
[5] A Phantom Menace (1999)
[6] A Phantom Menace (1999)
[7] A New Hope (1977).
[8] The Phantom Menace (1999).
[9] The Phantom Menace (1999).
[10] Revenge of the Sith (2005).
[11] The Empire Strikes Back (1980), The Return of the Jedi (1983)
Acknowledgements:
Thanks go to Laura Lo for her collaboration in watching all nine movies in one fell swoop.
Contributed by Kathy Lin. Lin holds a PhD in theological and religious studies from Georgetown University, and is currently a VAP at Oberlin College. To find out more about her work, visit www.nankathylin.com.