The Living Force vs The Unifying Force

What are the essential differences between the two? When did Luke become aware of this Jedi doctrine? Just some basic questions.

 

Well I know one difference is the Living Force has to do with the present, where as the Uinfying Force has to do with the future.

 

From the unofficial encyclopedia

The Lving Force: this was the facet of The Force which connected a Jedi Knight to the living beings which surrounded him. This facet complimented the Physical Force, which allowed a Jedi to use the Force to manipulate objects around him, and the Unifying Force, which focused on the future and its bearing on a Jedi's place in the present. During the last decades of the Old Republic, the Jedi Council stressed a certain detachment from the Living Force, to help prevent attachment to other beings.

The Unifying Force: this was the facet of The Force which focused on the future and its bearing on a Jedi's place in the present. Those Jedi who studied the Unifying Force understood that the future was constantly in motion, but sought to understand this motion and develop an understanding of their place within achieving the highest of ideals. This facet complimented the Living Force, which connected a Jedi Knight to the living beings which surrounded him, and the Physical Force, which allowed a Jedi to use the Force to manipulate objects around him. It was this aspect of the Force that was perhaps the least understood of the three, a fact that was all the more obvious after the Jedi Purge. As Luke Skywalker set out to rebuild the Jedi Knights after the Battle of Endor, his own training led him to concentrate on the Living Force and Physical Force. It wasn't until the Yuuzhan Vong invaded the galaxy, and the Fosh Jedi Vergere returned from her self-imposed exile among them, that Luke began to consider what the Unifying Force meant to the new Jedi Knights.

 

I don't think that this can be defined precisely in any way...

That said, I get the impression that the Living Force is what the Jedi draw upon any time they Force push someone or get that milisecond advance warning that allows them to dodge the blaster bolt aimed at their head, while the Unifying Force is the guiding part where all those vision come from and that general idea of the Force having a grand plan which all life is part (aka Destiny).

In other words, The Jedi (and other force users) use the Living Force, and in turn gets used by the Unifying Force

 

Okay, thanks. I think I've got an idea of it now.

How long though, have Luke and the other Jedi known about this? I can't recall it being mentioned prior to the NJO series.

 

it wasn't mentioned prior to the NJO (outside of the Prequel era books) because the writers didn't know about it.

 

Didnt Qui-Gon teach about the living force? And wasnt palpy's idea of power related to the Unifying force?

 

Right, so exactly when might it be conjectured that they actually learned about it? Might Luke be supposed to have known about it all along, and it was only mentioned first in the NJO? Or were they suddenly granted a revelation from the Force-ghost of Yoda, just before Vector Prime?

 

In the novelisation of TPM Qui-Gon talks about the living force and the unifying force. Saying that Obi Wan is more centred in the unifying force than Qui Gon would like him to be and how he is centred in the living force and hence dont see eye to eye on somethings

 

Do you suppose Obi-Wan taught the concept to Luke?

 

Possibly. Especially after Order 66, Obi and Yoda decide to reform their ideas about how to train. In ESB Yoda still seems in touch with the UF but Obi was into the LF. What with waitng for the Force to bring Luke to him.

 

Q_M talking non-critically about Jedi philosophy? Madness!

On a more serious note, I'm not sure how Luke may have concieved of the Force prior to Verege's reappearence. After the events of ROTS, I think both Yoda and Obi Wan shifted thier focus to the Living Force. After all, it was a widespread lack of focus on what was actually going on that allowed the Sith to grow beneath the Jedi's nose. You'll note that Yoda, the man who banked the success and future of the order on a fuzzily worded prophecy, is rather dismissive of a clear vision that Luke has of his friend's suffering in Cloud City. If Luke was indeed being geared to be the first "Sword of the Jedi," then he would spend his limited training in the Living Force. Any revalations about the Unifying Force would only come later, as Luke was more free to contemplate the nature of the Force, and would lack some of the more technical descriptions of the OJO Jedi

 

The Unifying Force is a bad idea. Just look at what's happening in Dark Nest.

Does Jacen's whole "the Jedi are above everyone else" sound a little Sithy to anyone else???

And after what he's done to Ta'Chume, not even Luke would have gone that far. Mara maybe. But it practically screams Darksider. "Anger, Fear, Aggression..." Anger at Ta'Chume, fear for his daughters saftey, aggression when he grabbed Ben by the throat and squeezed a little too hard. Walking a familiar path...

The Jedi lost their focus on the Living Force prior to the Clone Wars and look what happened, they became so introspective and worried over their own lack of ability to see the darkness that they lost their way. Palpy rose to power and nearly wiped out the Jedi. And that wasn't the first time either.

The Mandalorian Conflict led to the rise of the Sith under Revan and Malak, the Jedi focused on their own inadequecies afterward and were almost wiped out by Nihlus while they contemplated their own navels and danced merrily to Kreia's tune. (And there are some unresolved questions in that plot thread too)

Every time the Jedi start focusing on the nature of the force rather than protecting the balance that exists (the force exists in all life) bad things start to happen on a galactic scale. Think the Vong were bad? What happens when someone starts doing another Nihlus and wiping out life on a planetary scale, feeding off the death of the force itself.

Luke needs a big slap upside the head from a ghostly Obiwan, "Living Force, you simplton farmboy!"

 

Well said scare_crow , by the way, I love your signature line from Yeats.

 

Darth Jacen shall devour us all! It's Darth N part II.

 

eh...not exactly^^^^ the unifying force isnt the new view that jacen and the NJO are practicing. the Unifying Force is more akin to The Cosmic Force. It deals with destiny, meaning that it is about the past, present and future. The Living Force as earlier stated is the force that deals with a jedi's power.