STAR WARS: How Taoism Inspired The Force

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Film Clips Used:
Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) dir. George Lucas
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980) dir. Irvin Kershner
Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983) dir. Richard Marquand
Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) dir. George Lucas
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2016) dir. J.J. Abrams
Wall Street (1987) dir. Oliver Stone

Video Sources used:

Music Used:
Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0

Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported— CC BY-SA 3.0

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0

[mikeyedwards]

I'm the most critical person in the world. I study philosophy myself and am a huge Star Wars fan. Even I, after this finished, said to myself out loud, 'great video.' You seem to understand the basic concepts of why star wars is the way it is better than most. The force is the single best thing about star wars and encourages people into philosophy. Fantastic work. Please do videos on the other philosophical inspiration such as Buddhism, zoroastrianism etc. Keep it up man.

[EwingAmaterasu]

This is the best explanation of the force. Why? Because it uses the very concept that it was based on: the Dao!!

[rafiqbenaddou]

The Jedi definitely took some inspiration from Taoism, wich is really good, as you said Star Wars is much closer to reallity then you might think. Great video!

[alysiamerdavid-wasser]

*This is a REALLY great explanation of the Tao.* Lucas has always said that he is a "Buddhist/Methodist". i became a Buddhist in '93, a 'card-carrying Buddhist' in '05, yet the Tao..Wow. i started reading the Tao te Ching in 2007, and like they say: *"You can read it in a day, yet study it for a lifetime."* It's amazing. i didn't see a lot of it in Luke's character in the last movie, lol. THANK YOU. ~namaste ✌🎋💗

[apollo]

The force is like a pantheist ‘god’ it’s everything, and could be used on a physics breaking scale.

[kdr]

Phenomenal breakdown and parralels between Tao and the Force of Star Wars. I came away with a deeper and better understanding of both and how to better live a pathway to heaven and peace within my own life. Thank you.

[blackrhinohead]

My teacher showed me this video for school since we were learning about ancient china

[tarotnomad]

Amazing video. I'm just now getting into Star Wars, but with a background in occultism and philosophy. This video has helped so many different concepts click. Thanks again, Owen!

[joepearson]

The Yin-yang at 2:20 is not in complete balance, the black dot ⚫️ is complete black but the white dot ⚪️ has tones of grey. Leans to the dark side this symbol does.

[ernststravoblofeld]

The whole Yoda training thing was pulled straight from a story at the end of Suzuki's Zen and the Art of Archery. So, off, but not far off.

[pedrofranc]

I've noticed the similarities before but never knew of any video talking about it. Really happy to have discovered yours. Thank you and congrats

[jamesjones]

Yoda=Lao Tzu, Obi Wan=Zhuang Tzu, Qui-Gonn Jinn=Lu Dong Bin.

[TheGalacticGrizzly]

Great video! However, I would argue that while the Jedi may have been inspired by Taoism, they are in one way far from it. While the original Je'daii embraced both the dark and light side, the later Jedi abolish the dark side, even to the point where even a slight outburst of emotion is seen as a 'path to the dark side'. The 'current' Jedi lack balance.

[David-nihj]

Excellent video!!! Explains so well why the force doesn't work in poles.

[jeromeb]

This is a very good video, and I liked it.

[SpaceCredits]

Luminous beings are we - Yoda Episode 2 - Its about consciousness and how souls are eternal - daoist stuff is just based on this Universal belief Lucas modeled this after Yogic/All Spiritual teachings

[sdfry]

Interesting! Thanks for posting. I shared it on my FB.

[alfonsogutierrez]

I am glad people do see mainly the relationship of the starwars philosophy and taoism...aldo budhism...chan budhism which is a blend of taoism and buddhism in places like the shaolin temple and migrating to others like japan and called zen buddhism..the real jedis are those like shaolin monks..samurais...spiritual warriors..martial monks..i think this idea dawned on me by reading a little passage on the tao of health sex and longevity by Reid...

[frankm.]

The Force is basically the Tao and the philosophy of Zen Buddhism, which is appropriate since the Jedi are samurai wizards on space.

[asdfghjkl-qvo]

Starwars and Taoism has a lot of similarities