The "Jedi Ethics" of Defense
By: Jedi Hayashi
Self-defense according to the Jedi must always comply with certain ethical imperatives. These are many and complex, but for our purposes we have devised situations.
In these situations, each situation represents an ethical level of combat. The level rises as we proceed from situation A to situation D. Each situation consists of two men. The man on the left is the Jedi. The man on the right is any other person one might come across.
In situation A, the Jedi on the left, without provocation and on his own initiative, attacks the other man and kills him. Ethically, this is the lowest of the four levels-unprovoked aggression in the form of a direct attack.
In situation B, the Jedi does not directly attack the other man, but provokes the other man to attack him. It may have been an obvious provocation, such as an insulting remark or the more subtle provocation of a contemptuous attitude. In either case, when the other man is invited to attack and does so, he is killed. While the Jedi is not guilty of launching the actual attack, he is responsible for inciting the other man to attack. There is only a shade of difference ethically between situation A and situation B.
In situation C, the Jedi neither attacks nor provokes the other man to attack. But, when attacked he defends himself in a subjective manner, i.e., he takes care of only "number one," and the other man is killed or at least seriously injured. Ethically this is a more defensible action than the other two. The Jedi was in no way responsible for the attack, neither directly nor indirectly. His manner of defense, however, while protecting himself from possible harm, resulted in the destruction of another life form. AS you can see the result in all three situations- A, B, and C- is identical: A MAN IS KILLED.
In situation D, we have the ultimate in ethical self-defense. Neither attacking nor provoking an attack, the Jedi is attacked. Though he defends himself in such a way, with such skill and control that the attacker is not killed. And in this case he is not even seriously injured. Yet the attacker knows that he will get nowhere by attacking except to sooner or later hurt himself.
This last and highest level is the goal of all Jedi self-defense arts. It requires skill: the result of intensive practice of the technical means of defense devised by the Jedi. But it requires more than that! It requires an ethical intention. A Jedi must sincerely desire to defend himself without killing others. A Jedi’s goal is to protect life. He must be well on the way toward integration of mind, body, force, of physical means and ethical motives.
He will often have practiced various other disciplines. Breathing exercises and mediation are common means employed in the Jedi academy to further this integration?
As we see then, at this ethical level, Jedi’s emerge as disciples of Coordination, where a Jedi develops his own coordination of mind and body while helping his partner or partners to develop theirs as well.
The practice of the Jedi then becomes a harmonious interaction between two or more people, fulfilling all Jedi’s intention via translation of the highest ethics into vital and active modes of conduct.
Excerpts from the book, "Aikido and the dymanic sphere": written by Jedi A. Westbrook and Jedi O. Ratti.