why are jedi denied love?

My guess is, a point in time existed when the Jedi allowed love, but found that it too often lead people to the dark side. Their ban on love is an attempt to keep their members founded in the "light" side by disallowing them energies which might lead to an expression of evil. However, my guess is it's an unhealthy ban. It's like banning freedom of speech or anything that's been done throughout human history to keep people (mentally) inside a box. For example, laws which attempt to repress any thought or action which does not co-encide with the socially accepted norm. No matter how "moral" those laws are, time and again, people break them. The rest only don't perform the action banned out of fear, not because they naturally agree with the law.

And I feel the reason for that is because the tendancy towards attachment is something inherent in human beings. I won't go into it too much, but my current opinion is that people have something in them that makes them gravitate toward what they can't have, to break laws just for the sake of breaking them, to do anything they feel will liberate their minds to whatever they want to think, no matter how reckless or damaging that action is. Partially because of laws and other restrictions put in their way, but also because anything that creates meaning (extreme good or extreme bad) is addictive to people. "The map is not the territory", yet human minds are not wired to understand the territory, only the map. We HAVE to use the map. Even the very language we use- symbols of letters that make up words, are only expressions of meaning that our minds create in order to understand the world.

The reason why some religions focus on absolving oneself from attachment is that seems to be the only thing which purifies the self into allowing the universe to progress naturally, as it was intended. Absolved of the need to create meaning, a person can just "let be" and the universe returns to it's original, neutral self. People typically want to fight the natural order of things as a way of proving that they are in "control", but the really is it's not necessary to do this. A person doesn't need to be in control to be able to do things- in fact, the universe typically rewards people who detach themselves by giving them greater expression then they had in the first place. It's a paradox.

The humanity of Anakin's fall is the tendancy of all of us to allow emotions and attachment to disrupt the universal harmony. That's not to say emotions are wrong. It's just that unchecked, emotions cloud judgement and lead to irrational actions. Just like any other polarity expression (extreme love, hate, fear, etc.)

 

Well, in the SW context, I hesitate to say it's only "human", since humans are one of many species in the GFFA.

But I think it's probably a trait that comes with any sentient species.

Hell, even cats, as fickle as they are, become attached to their owners and such.

 

I'll buy that. Maybe "life" is a better term. All things alive are at the very least attached towards the concept of being alive- producing defense mechanisms, avoiding danger, and doing things which promote their growth.

 

Probably for some, attachments COULD make one more vulnerable to the dark side. Like Anakin.

But for others, their attachments make them stronger and able to resist it. Such as Luke.

 

Yes. As a matter of fact, it was fear that saved Luke(and the whole galaxy) in the end - fear of turning to the dark side.
So it all works differently for different persons, because of different experiences.

 

Its kind of Hard to procreate your own son without having feelings for your offspring. Let alone the mother of your son/daughter. Its human nature. So if you procreat, you inherit love for your child which leads to anger, which leads to yadda, yadda, yadda. Seldon I would like to know where you get your information. Deffinately not from experience.

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"Jedi can have physical relationships with the opposite sex.
They can't get married to that person."

-Seldon
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