The Darth Vader within us all

Angels and Demons

Someone once said to me that in each of us is the capacity for the greatest compassion and at the same time, the capacity for the greatest evil.











For most of us ordinary folks, we like to think of ourselves as the "Good guys". I mean, lets face it, nobody, in his/her right frame of mind, would call themselves the "Bad guys". 

However, all of us, at some point in our life have committed "bad" guy things like back-stab someone; get revenge; scratch someone's car... the list goes on. Let's just not pretend.








And we'll justify it... they back-stabbed me first; the bitch wronged me; he almost caused me to have an accident... bla bla bla. We can always justify our actions. In fact, we only need one excuse why our actions are justified despite a million and one reasons why we should not. And if all else fails, we fall back on the ultimate defense, "I'm only human".


Now... this is us ordinary folks. 

Anakin walking with Vader's
shadow in the background

Despite doing all these, we still consider ourselves the good guys. By the way, so does our victim/antagonist. They also call themselves the good guys.








But let's now take this to another level.








If this is true for us, wouldn't it also be true for Mother Teresa? Many people will say "oh no, not Mother Teresa... She's a saint..." bla bla bla.






I beg to differ. I'm going to go as far as saying even Christ, Buddha and all the other Messiahs and Avatars and Prophets have that same capacity within them i.e. the capacity for the greatest compassion and evil both at the same time.

The difference between them and us is that they have consciously chosen the light (or some call it the "higher") instead of darkness (or some call it the "lower").

Imagine for an instance that Christ chose darkness when he was on the cross. He is such an advanced being that he could heal and raise the dead at will. He could have easily struck his antagonists down but that would have been to choose the "lower", the ego. Instead, fortunately for us all, he chose the path of compassion "forgive them Father, for they know not what they are doing".

Yin and Yang

Both people of great compassion as well as people whom we have considered to be evil people in our history are people who have the seed of greatness in them that have ripened but they chose different paths. The great compassionates chose light whereas those who are embodiment of evil chose darkness (e.g. Hitler). That is what separates them and it is a thin line indeed.




For us ordinary folks we don't think much about this. Let's face it... if you are "just ordinary", the only thing in your mind would probably be just putting bread on the dinner table and maybe whether your boss is in a good mood or not. The last thing on your mind would be if you are choosing the higher or the lower. Well... there's not much "major" repercussions that your choices is going to create (this is debatable and relative of course) anyway. It's not like our choices in our everyday lives is going to cause WW3 right? Of course, there is always Cause and Effect (or Karma as some would call it) but what I'm saying is, as ordinary folks... really... no big deal. If that guy crosses in front of your car, your middle finger goes up or some profanity finds its way out of your mouth. :-) And after that you don't give much thought to it after the event passes.




On the other hand, IF.. you have certain abilities... like psychic abilities, or magical powers (ability to manipulate energy) etc... its a different thing all together. Because, there will be temptations. Imagine, you are among the few, who have just learnt a new ability. An ability that you suddenly realize can help you get that revenge that has been at the back of your mind for decades. And the beauty of it... "nobody" (so you think) would know you did it. Revenge would be sweet. hahaha. What would you do if you find yourself in that situation?




Would you still choose the light? or would you give in to choosing darkness?

Darth Vader - Anakin Skywalker

Well... I'm telling you that nobody knows what you will choose. Not even yourself. When we are presented with such a hypothetical situation and asked what we will choose, most of us (if not all) would "like" to think of ourselves as choosing Light. But it is all theory. When placed in a real situation, when there does not seem to be any other way out or when a loved one is threatened with a life and death situation, I can tell you now that it will get extremely tempting to use special skills/abilities to our advantage even if it means destroying the "enemy" and dancing with the devil in the process. Like I said, "when there does not appear to be any way out..."


That's why I said in an earlier post that there's like a Darth Vader in each of us. Whether we become like Darth Vader or not would depend on our choices when such events occur to us. We know, in theory (philosophically) that we should choose the Light and we hope to choose the Light. 


All of us have that bit of Darth Vader in us. And I believe that as we get closer to knowing our truest nature as spiritual beings, and certain abilities become available to us, we have to "tame" that Darth Vader in us. Well, I don't mean suppression. I mean, we accept who we are and the "not so high" choices that we are being tempted to make (e.g. thoughts of revenge etc) and then recognize why we are having those thoughts (e.g. he wronged me etc), then release it once you have embraced the emotions (it looses power when we do that) and then we are then free to make the higher choice. Of course, as we go higher such choices become automatic until more difficult tests comes. :-) Such is the journey of our soul.


This is why I say, in each of us lies the capacity for greatest compassion and at the same time greatest evil. For it is one and the same. It is our choices that would determine whether we go down in history as great compassionate beings or the embodiment of evil.