Another Reflection on "Do, or do not. There is no try."

 “No. No try or try not. Do, or do not. There is no try.”

- Jedi Master Yoda, The Empire Strikes Back

I was reading an article within the past year which took issue with Master Yoda’s famous line from Star Wars Episode V. The author was upset because he felt that it preached an absolutism that discouraged attempting anything new. He also asked the question, not without justification, “How are we to learn anything new if we don’t first try and fail?” He made some very good points in his article.

     The problem is, he failed to understand the lesson which the ancient Jedi Master was trying to convey.

     “There is no try” doesn’t work in every circumstance, but it’s not meant to. There are some things, spiritual practices in particular, which really cannot be learned except by doing them. The reason for this is that until we do them, we have no baseline to measure them against. This is true because these things are entirely internal and experiential to the person practicing them. Spiritual masters for centuries, if not millennia, have attempted to teach these things through parables, stories, koans, and metaphors which only make sense once the thing being taught has actually been done.

     The context within the movie is a good metaphor for this. Yoda was trying to teach Luke how to interact with the Force to retrieve his star fighter from the bog into which it sank, with the bigger lesson that “size matters not,” that is, that it is the Force doing it, and the Force wasn’t bound by the limitations Luke assumed about himself unless Luke himself restrained what the Force did by assuming those limitations. Luke had to let go of his presuppositions about what could and could not be accomplished. He had to experience the Force flowing around him, within him, and through him. The Force was present, surrounding him whether he believed it or not. But in order for him to interact with it, he had to just do it, letting go of his preconceptions which restrained him.

     Meditation practice is one of the real world practices where “there is no try” applies. You either meditate or you don’t, and the deep experience of contemplative prayer which results can’t be learned or even fully explained until it happens. Faith is another thing where, really, “there is no try.” You either trust God or you don’t. You either hand Him the steering wheel, accelerator, and brake, or you yank it back. There is no middle ground, there is no hanging on to the driver’s seat “just in case.” There is no back up, no escape hatch, no safety net “just in case.” He will meet us where we’re at, but if you limit Him with your own assumptions of limitations (“it’s too big!”), and act accordingly, then you’re the one still driving, not Him.

     “There is no try” applies most potently to remaining in Christ or “walking in the Spirit.” One either does it, or does not do it. One either disengages from their own naturally produced responses and behaviors, and commits total control and cooperation to the Spirit of Christ, or they do not. It is an either/or situation. This is not to say it is a once and done situation. Control must be explicitly or implicitly turned over to Him with every moment, every decision, every response, every word, every behavior. There are times we will fail and take the steering wheel back, and when this happens we must recognize it, agree with God about it, and give control back to Him. This is part of the learning process. But until we do explicitly give Him control, we have no baseline to compare the experience with. We will not know or understand what it is like to have Him speak and act through us, and how it is different from our own responses, words, or behaviors. We will not learn how to imitate Christ in His submission to the Father until we do it and realize we’re doing it.

     There is no “Well, I’ll give it a try and see how it works out.” to the path of Jesus Christ. Those who go into it with this mentality will continue in their own malfunctioning devices. It’s an all or nothing upward motion. You either move forward, or you move backwards. It’s either Him doing it through you, the infinite, omnipotent Creator and Author of the multiverse acting and speaking through you and in cooperation with your own resources, or it’s you trying to do it with just your own limited, finite resources. This is why, in the New Testament, those who follow Him are encouraged, exhorted, and nothing short of commanded to strip away everything which would hinder that upward motion towards full “synchronization” with Jesus Christ. As Paul writes using the metaphor of a Greco-Roman runner in the games who literally stripped down naked to remove all possible impediments and anything which would trip him up or in which he might be tangled.

     “Do, or do not. There is no try.” Where the path of Jesus Christ is concerned, there are few words which are truer.

A Fresh Translation of Romans 2

 Therefore, you are without a defense, O every single human being who judges; because with what criteria you are judging the other different person, you will judge against yourself, because you who judge are practicing the self-same things. Yet we know that the legal decision of God is in line with reality upon those practicing such things as these. Yet are you calculating this thing, O human being judging those practicing such things as these and doing them, that you will escape the legal decision of God? Or are you minded against the wealth of His kindness and relief and long temper, being ignorant that the specific kindness of God guides you into a change of heart? Yet in line with your hardness and unchanging heart you treasure for yourself natural impulse on the day of passionate anger and revelation of the right judgment of the God who will repay to each person in line with his deeds; to those on the one hand looking for, in line with the endurance of a good work, reputation and value and incorruption He will repay the life of the Eternal One; yet to those from selfishness also disobeying this Reality being convinced by that wrong He will repay with passionate anger and intensity. Crushing and confinement upon every single psyche of a human being achieving the bad thing, both Iudaean first and Greek; yet reputation and value and peace to every single person achieving the good thing, both to Iudaean first and to Greek; because there isn’t partiality alongside God. Because as many as malfunctioned without the Torah, will also be destroyed without the Torah, and as many as malfunctioned by means of the Torah, will be decided through the Torah; because not those who hear the Torah are righted alongside God, but those who do the Torah will be declared right. Because when the ethnic groups who don’t possess the Torah should naturally do the things of the Torah, these not possessing the Torah are a Torah for themselves; such ones as demonstrate the work of the Torah written on their hearts, with their conscience testifying together with, and in the middle of, one another’s calculations, prosecuting or defending them, on the day when God will decide the hidden things of human beings in line with my Gospel through Yeshua the Christ.

     Yet if you are called a Iudaean and rest upon the Torah and speak loudly by means of God and are familiar with His will and prove the different things by testing being instructed from the Torah, having convinced yourself too to be a guide of the blind, a light for those in the darkness, a tutor for the mindless, a teacher of infants, having the embodiment of the knowledge and the truth within the Torah; the one who teaches the other different person, do you not teach yourself? The one who preaches not to steal, do you steal? The one who says not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery? The one abhorring the idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who speak loudly with the Torah, are you devaluing God through the violation of the Torah? Because, “The name of God is blasphemed because of you among the ethnic groups,” just like it had been written. Because circumcision is on the one hand a benefit if you should practice the Torah; yet if you are a violator of the Torah, your circumcision has become a foreskin. If then the foreskin guards the regulations of the Torah, doesn’t his foreskin figure for circumcision? And the foreskin from nature who brings the Torah to completion will decide you the violator of the Torah through the letter and circumcision. Because it isn’t the person who is visibly a Iudaean nor the circumcision visibly within the soft tissues of the body, but the person who is a hidden Iudaean, and the circumcision with the Spirit not the letter, of which the praise is not from human beings but from God.

A Fresh Translation of Romans 5

 Having then been made right from the faith we possess peace standing in front of God through our Lord Yeshua the Christ through whom also we had held the solemn approach by the faith into this charity with which we have stood and speak loud upon the reputation of God. Yet not just this, but also we speak loudly in these afflictions, knowing that the affliction achieves endurance, yet this endurance achieves a passed test, yet this passed test achieves hope. Yet this hope doesn’t cover with shame, because the love of God had been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given to us. Because the Christ still, with our still being weak, in line with the period of time died on behelf of the sacrilegious. Because someone would only just die on behalf of a righted person (because someone would also perhaps dare to die on behalf of a good person); yet God puts together His own love as far as we are concerned, because with our still being malfunctioning people the Christ died on our behalf. By much more then, having now been made right with His blood, will we be rescued through Him from  the natural impulse. Because if being hostiles we were exchanged to God through the death of His Son, by much more being exchanged will we be rescued with His life; yet not just this, but also boasting by means of God through our Lord Yeshua the Christ through whom we now possess the exchange.

     Because of this, just like through one human being the malfunction entered into the universe and this death through that malfunction, and in this way that death came through into all human beings, upon which everyone malfunctioned; because up to the Torah the malfunction was within the universe, yet the malfunction wasn’t being calculated with the Torah not existing, but this death reigned from Adam up til Moses and upon those not having malfunctioned upon the same kind of violation of Adam who is a type of the One being intended.

     But the charitable gift1 isn’t in this way like the violation; because if by the one’s violation the many died, how much more the charity of God and what is freely granted with that charity which overflowed from the one human being Yeshua the Christ into the many. And the present isn’t like through the one having malfunctioned; because the crime from the one on the one hand resulted in punishment, yet the charitable gift out of many violations results in the amendment of the wrong. Because if by the one’s violation this death reigned through the one, how much more those receiving within life the overflow of this charity and the state of being right which is freely granted will reign through the One Yeshua the Christ. Therefore then, like through the one’s violation into all human beings resulted in punishment, so also through the one’s amendment of the wrong into all human beings resulted in life’s justice; because just like through the unwillingness to listen of the one human being placed the many as malfunctioning people, so also through the willingness to listen of the One the many will be placed as righted people. Yet the Torah entered alongside, so that the violation would be more than sufficient; yet where the malfunction was more than sufficient, this charity overflowed beyond that, so that just like the malfunction reigned within this death, so also the charity would reign through the right state of being resulting in the life of the Eternal One through Yeshua the Christ, our Lord.

A Fresh Translation of John 17

 Yeshua talked these things and having lifted up His eyes to the sky He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, so that Your Son would glorify You, just like You gave Him authority of every single physical being, so that every single thing you had given Him He would give to them the Life of the Eternal One. And this is the Life of the Eternal One, so that they would be familiar with You the only real God and Yeshua the Christ whom you sent out. I glorified You upon the land having finished the work which You had given to Me so that I should do it; and now You glorify Me, Father, by the glory which I was having alongside Yourself before the universe’s existence alongside You.

     I made Your name shine forth to those human beings whom you gave to Me out of the system of this world. They were for You and You gave them to Me and they have kept Your message. Now they recognized that all things as much as You had given Me are from alongside You; that the spoken words which You gave Me I had given to them, and they received and really recognized that I came out from alongside You, and trusted that You sent Me out. I am requesting about them, I am not requesting about the universe but about those whom You had given Me, because they are for You, and all the things which are Mine are Yours and the things which are Yours are Mine, and I had been glorified with them. And I am no longer within the universe, and they are within the universe, and I am coming to You. Holy Father, keep them with Your name which You had given to Me, so that they would be one thing, just like We are. When I was with them, I was keeping them with Your name which you had given to Me, and I guarded them, and none of them was destroyed except the son of that destruction, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. Yet now I am coming to You and I am talking these things within the universe so that they would have the joy which is Mine having been filled full within themselves. I had given to them Your message and the system of this world hated them, because they aren’t of the system of this world anymore just like I am not of the system of this world. I’m not requesting so that You would remove them out of the universe, but so that You would keep them from the deranged one. They aren’t of the system of this world just like I am not of the system of this world. Make them holy with Your Reality; the Message which is Yours is that Reality. Just like You sent Me out into the universe, I also will send them out into the universe; and I am making Myself holy on their behalf, so that they would also be having been made holy with that Reality.

     Yet I’m not requesting about just these, but also about those putting their trust into Me through their message, so that all of them would be one thing, just like You, Father, are within Me and I am within You, so that they also would be one thing within us, so that the universe would trust that You sent Me out. And I had given to them the reputation which You had given to Me, so that they would be one thing just like We are One thing; I within them and You within Me, so that they would be having been brought to completion into one thing, so that the universe would know that You sent Me out and loved them just like You loved Me. Father, the thing which you had given to Me, I wish so that where I am those also would be with Me, so that they would gaze on the glory which is Mine, which you had given to Me because You loved Me before the founding of the Universe. Right Father, also the system of this world didn’t recognize You, yet I recognized You, and these recognized that You sent Me out; and I made Your name known to them and I will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me would be within them and I would be within them.”

A Fresh Translation of John 13

 Yet before the holy day of the Pascha, Yeshua having seen that His hour came so that He would transfer out of this universe in the direction of the Father, His own who are within the universe, He loved them as far as the end. And with a seder happening, with the Slanderer already having been tossed into the heart of Y’hudah Bar-Shimon the Iskariot so that he would hand Him over, knowing that the Father gave everything to Him into His hands and that He came out from God and is going to God, He rose Himself from the seder and set down His clothes and having taken a towel He belted Himself; then tosses water into the washbasin and started to wash the feet of the disciples and to wipe them dry with the towel with which He was having been belted. He then comes to Shimon Petros; he says to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?” Yeshua responded and said to him, “What I’m doing you don’t know at present, yet you will know with these things.” Petros says to Him, “You will absolutely not wash my feet into the eon.” Yeshua responded to them, “If I won’t wash you, you don’t have a piece with Me.” Shimon Petros says to Him, “Lord, not just my feet but also my hands and head!” Yeshua says to him, “The person having been bathed doesn’t have a use for it except for the feet to be washed, but is otherwise entirely clean; and you guys are clean, but not all. Because He knew the one handing Him over; because of this He said that, “Not all of you guys are clean.”

     When He then washed their feet and took His clothes and fell upon the floor again, He said to them, “Do you recognize what I have done for you? You call Me, ‘The Teacher,’ and ‘The Lord,’ and you speak beautifully, because I am. If then I, the Teacher and Lord, washed your feet, you guys are also obligated to wash one another’s feet; because I gave you an example so that just like I did for you, you guys also should do. Amen amen I tell you, a slave isn’t better than his owner, neither is an emissary better than the person having sent him. If you know these things, you are happy if you should do them. Not about all of you am I speaking; I know those whom I selected; but so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, “The person nibbling on My bread lifted up his heel upon Me.’ From this point on I am telling you before the happening, so that you would trust when it should happen that I Am. Amen amen I tell you, the person receiving anyone whom I would send receives Me, yet the person receiving Me receives the One having sent Me.”

     Having said these things, Yeshua’s breathing was upset and He testified and said, “Amen amen I am telling you that one of you will hand Me over.” The disciples looking at one another being at a loss about whom He is speaking. One of His disciples was reclining against the chest of Yeshua, whom Yeshua loved, Shimon Petros then nodded to this person to inquire who it would be about whom He is speaking. That person then having in this way fallen upon the chest of Yeshua says to Him, “Lord, who is it?” Yeshua responds, “That person is to whom I will dip the piece of bread and will give it to him.” Having then dipped the piece of bread He gives it to Y’hudah Bar-Shimon the Iskariot. And with the piece of bread at that time Satan entered into that one. Yeshua then says to him, “What thing you are doing, do it fast.” Yet this thing no one of those reclining knew in the direction of what He said to him; because some were assuming, since Y’hudah was holding the money-box, that Yeshua says to him, “Purchase what we have need of for the holy day,” or so that he would give something to the destitute. Taking the piece of bread that one came out immediately. Yet it was night.

     When he then came out, Yeshua says, “Now the Son of Adam was glorified, and God was glorified with Him, and God will glorify Him by means of Him, and he will immediately glorify Him. Little children, I am still with you for a little bit; you will look for Me , and just like I told the Iudaeans that, ‘Where I am going you can’t come,’ I am also telling you now. I am giving you a fresh command, so that you love one another, just like I loved you so that you also love one another. With this thing everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you should possess love among one another.”

     Shimon Petros says to Him, “Lord, where are you going?” Yeshua answered, “Where I’m going you can’t follow Me now, yet you will follow Me afterwards.” Petros says to Him, “Lord, because of what can’t I follow You now? I would set down My psyche on your behalf.” Yeshua responds, “Would you set down your psyche on My behalf? Amen amen I tell you, the rooster will absolutely not sound until which time you would disown Me thrice.”

A Fresh Translation of John 16

“I have talked these things to you so that you wouldn’t be tripped up. They will make you excommunicated; but an hour is coming so that every single person having killed you should assume to offer priestly ministry to God. And they will do these things because they didn’t recognize the Father nor Me. But I have talked these things to you so that when the hour should come you would remember that I told you.

     Yet I didn’t tell you these things from the start, because I was with you. Yet now I am going towards the One having sent Me, and no one from you questions Me, “Where are you going?” But because I have talked to you these things grief has filled your heart. But I am telling you the Truth, it comes together better for you so that I should come away. Because if I shouldn’t come away, the Advocate won’t come to you; yet if I should go, I will send Him to you. And having come that one will bring the system of this world to light about the malfunction and about a right state of being and about the decision point. About the malfunction on the one hand, because they don’t put their trust into Me; yet about a right state of being, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer view Me; yet about the decision point, because the princeps of the system of this world has been judged.

     I still have a lot to say to you, but you can’t carry the load of it just yet; yet when that One should come, the Spirit of the Truth, He will guide you within all reality; because He will not talk from Himself, but as much as He will hear He will talk and will disclose the coming things to you. That one will glorify Me, because He will receive from Me and will disclose to you. Everything as much as the Father possesses is Mine; because of this, I said that He receives from Me and will disclose to you.

     A little bit and you will no longer view Me, and again a little bit and you will see Me.” They said then from His disciples to one another, “What is this thing which He says to us, ‘A little bit and you won’t view Me, and again a little bit and you will see Me’? And, ‘Because I am going to the Father?’” They were then saying, “What is this thing which He says, ‘the little bit’? We don’t know what He’s talking about.” Yeshua knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, “About this do you look with one another that I said, ‘A little bit and you won’t view Me, and a little bit and you will see Me?’ Amen amen I tell you, that you will wail for grief and will sing a funeral dirge, yet the system of this world will rejoice; you will be grieved, but your grief will happen for joy. The woman when she brings a child into the world holds grievous pain, because her hour came; yet when she births the little child, she no longer remembers the distress because of the joy that a human being was birthed into the universe. And you then now on the one hand hold grievous pain; yet I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will lift your joy away from you. And on that day you will question Me nothing at all. Amen amen I tell you, as much as you would ask the Father anything with My name He will give you. Until this point in time you didn’t ask for anything at all with My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy would be having been filled up.

     I have talked to you these things with metaphors; an hour is coming when I will no longer talk to you with metaphors, but I will openly announce to you everything about the Father. On that day you will ask with My name, and I’m not telling you that I will question the Father about you; because the Father Himself has affection for you, because you had affection for Me and had trusted that I came out from alongside the Father. I came out from alongside the Father and had come into the universe; I am again letting the universe go and going to the Father.” His disciples are saying, “Look, now you are talking openly and are speaking not one metaphor. Now we know that you know everything and don’t have a need so that someone should question you; with this we know that you came out from God.” Yeshua responded to them, “You trust this now? Look, an hour is coming and has come so that each of you will be scattered like seed into his own things and you will let Me go alone; and I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. I had talked these things to you so that with Me you would have peace; you hold distress with the system of this world; but be confident, I have been victorious over the system of this world.”

A Fresh Translation of John 15

 John 15

“I am the real vine and My Father is the Vinedresser. Every single branch within Me not producing fruit He removes it, and every single branch which produces the fruit He cleans it so that it would produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the message which I had talked to you; make your home within Me, and I within you. Just like the branch can’t produce fruit from itself if it shouldn’t make its home within the vine, in this way neither you if you shouldn’t make your home within Me. I Am the Vine, you are the branches. The person making his home within Me and I within him this person produces a lot of fruit, because separated from Me you absolutely can’t do anything at all. If someone shouldn’t make his home within Me, he was tossed outside like the branch and was dried up and they collect them and toss them into the fire and they are burned. If you should make your home within Me and My spoken words should make their home within you, you will ask whatever you would wish, and it will happen for you. With this My Father was glorified, so that you would produce a lot of fruit and would become disciples for Me. Just like the Father loved Me, I also loved you; Make your home within the love which is Mine. If you should keep My commands, you would remain within My love, Just like I had kept the commands of My Father and I make My home within His love.

     I have talked these things to you so that the joy which is Mine would be within you and your joy would be filled full. This is the command which is Mine, so that you love one another just like I loved you. No one holds better love than this, so that someone would set down his psyche on behalf of his friends. You are My friends if you would do what things I Myself am commanded for you. I am no longer saying to you, ‘slaves,’ because the slave doesn’t know what his owner is doing; yet I have said, ‘friends,’ because everything which I heard from alongside My Father I made known to you. You didn’t select Me, but I selected you and set you down so that you should go and should produce fruit and your fruit should make its home, so that anything whatever you should ask the Father with My name He will give you. These things I am commanded for you, so that you love one another.

     If the system of this world hates you, recognize that it had hated Me first. If you were from the system of this world, the system of this world would have affection for its own; yet because you aren’t from the system of this world anymore, but I selected you out of the system of this world, because of this the system of this world hates you. Remember the message which I said to you, “A slave isn’t better than his owner.” If they chased Me down, they will also chase you down; if they kept My message, they will also keep yours. But they will do all of these things to you because of My name, because they don’t know the One having sent Me. If I didn’t come and talk to them, they weren’t in possession of a malfunction; yet now they don’t even have a pretext about their malfunction. The person hating Me also hates My Father. If I didn’t do the deeds among them which no one other did, they weren’t in possession of a malfunction; yet now they have also seen and have hated both Me and My Father. But so that the message which is having been written within their Torah would be fulfilled that, “They hated Me for no reason.”

     When the Advocate should come, whom I will send to you from alongside the Father, the Spirit of the Truth which goes out from alongside the Father, that One will testify about Me; yet you also will testify, because you are with Me from the start.”