A Parable for Unity Consciousness
Watching The Last Jedi for the second time has triggered a few thoughts regarding humanities current path to Unity Consciousness. For those readers who have not seen the movie I must warn you that I am writing without thought to spoilers and this may only make sense to those that have seen the movie. Also events are Not written in chronological order.
The 4th dimensional position humanity is currently occupying is a realm of duality. Many philosophies and theologies have different approaches to duality but all seem to agree that there is dark and light, good and bad, etc.; opposites are in a constant battle that must eventually come to an All are One way of being.
Unity Consciousness, the Oneness, the Wholeness, in the 4th dimension is positioned with the concept that the opposites are parts of the same whole. There is no separation between the two sides much like the Yin/Yang symbol where the black and white co-exist within a circle and notably the white portion has a black ‘heart’ or seed and the black portion has a ‘white’ heart or seed.
The Yin/Yang represents the combination of two Cosmic Forces that are inseparable and appear to be contradictory yet are complementary and interdependent within a Circle. Circles represent wholeness and yet the Yin/Yang symbol is the epitome of duality.
The Last Jedi has the dark side character, Kylo Ren in direct opposition to the light side character Rey. The entire movie, like the series, is focused on pitting perceived bad against perceived good. A premier example of duality.
Now some of you may balk at my use of the word perceived. I point out that the ‘fake’ Codebreaker hacked into the ship he stole to find out who owned it. With resistance fighters (the good side) Finn and Rose watching he pointed out that the owner’s wealth was made selling arms to both the dark side (the Empire) and the light side (the Rebel resistance).
The character Finn it needs to be noted, is a defector from the Empire’s Stormtroopers and is all in with the Rebels; becoming a legend and hero within the ranks of the Rebels for doing so much for the cause (in the previous movie).
The upshot is the ‘good’ does not look so Good since it is buying and selling weapons just like the other side. And the “bad’ treasonous stormtrooper isn’t so bad after all. All perceptions depending on which side your looking at it.
The comparison can continue in the relationship of Kylo Ren and Rey. Kylo Ren is in the role of the apprentice to the dark side. Rey is attempting to become an apprentice to the light side by seeking out Luke Skywalker and learning the ways of the Jedi.
Rey eventually convinces Skywalker to teach her the ways of the Jedi, the ways of the Force. In the first lesson she follows directions but goes way into the dark side which freaks Skywalker out. He saw this same ability in his former and now estranged student, Kylo Ren. Later Rey returns to the dark place and does not find the answers she is seeking but it is important to note that she did indeed go willingly to the dark side without fear and returns still strong in the light.
Through the manipulation of both Kylo Ren and Rey they are brought together in what I will call bilocation and over several contacts they learn about each other while trying to turn each to their respective side of either light or dark. They do not know that they are being manipulated by the Supreme Leader Snoke and when they find out, there is a bond created between them through their mutual dislike of Snoke.
Kylo Ren later kills his master the Supreme Leader to save Rey in what appears to be a glimmer of the light within the dark apprentice. Kylo Ren tells Rey that the Jedi (good) and the Sith (bad) are finished as well as the Empire and the resistance. Alas Kylo Ren wants Rey to join him to rule over all. Rey fails to see that perhaps Kylo Ren was offering something new, which she refuses and escapes to join the resistance once more.
In the end after the big battle has the resistance fleeing and the Empire with egg on their face, Kylo Ren and Rey face each other again using bilocation with their own power in a non-committal reunion that sets them up in potential competition with each other but there also seems to be a possibility of understanding each other and their futures.
Watching this movie the Yin/Yang symbol kept coming into my thoughts. The light explores the dark center (when Rey goes into the dark cave) and the dark is touched by the light center (when Kylo Ren kills Snoke and saves Rey). The idea of Unity Consciousness is that both the light and the dark exist – together – in equanimity – it is not a battle for dominion over all, it is acceptance of each other.
Current spiritual teachers focus on the shadow as a necessary part of everyday life and that a human life is in harmony when the shadow is recognized, accepted and integrated. The shadow is not to be obliterated because to do so would obliterate what it is to be human. The shadow is to be seen and enfolded into the next action, the next thought, the next emotion with compassion.
Perhaps that is what I saw in the faces of Kylo Ren and Rey at the end of The Last Jedi – compassion. Both saw in each other the possibility and perhaps the need for both to be authentic to themselves and still finding a way to co-exist as equals. After all the Yin/Yang circle is not gray it is two perfectly equal yet distinct ways of being within the circle.
There is another interesting moment in the movie where Luke Skywalker is defeated by the departure of Rey after he refuses yet again to train her and help the resistance because of his firm belief that there is no more hope. Skywalker intends to set the only remaining bastion of Jedi religion (his word not mine), afire to finally destroy the last set of books (which he has never read) that explain the Force and its precepts.
He can’t do it. Skywalker cannot destroy the ancient texts but spirit Yoda does and with a flash of light the last temple of the Jedi is destroyed. Yoda tells ‘young’ Skywalker that it is time for the religion to die, new ways are coming. Perhaps the new ways are painful in being birthed but birthed they must be.
This is what compels Luke to confront Kylo Ren (using bilocation) which serves to conclude his present now existence and punctuating the fact Kylo Ren and Rey are the ones to continue the presumed struggle perhaps in equanimity.
At the end of the movie Rey boards the Millennium Falcon with the few surviving Rebels and despairs that there aren’t enough to continue the fight. Princess Leia Organa says to Rey that “you have all that you need.” Which is the unspoken meaning of the Yin/Yang; everything is within the circle of Unity Consciousness, we just need to find a way (a perception) that recognizes, accepts and integrates duality into the perfect harmony that already is.
