Path of the Jedi Episode #7 – Attachment in the Star Wars Universe Part 1

Attachment is as tricky a subject for the Jedi Order as it can be for us. It is often a point of contention among Star Wars fans with many going as far as to say that this particular part of the Jedi Code is what lead to the fall of the Order. Whether that’s actually the case is arguable.

What’s not arguable are the larger implications for our own lives if we were to really work towards a deeper understanding of attachment.

How can understanding Attachment help us?

It’s a broad topic and one that merits multiple episodes (and likely multiple revisits). For our purposes toady, we discuss attachment in the context of all the things that happen (and are happening) around us and the meanings we assign to those things.

Have you ever heard yourself saying a thing “should” be one way, or that what happened isn’t “right”?

Well, this feeling that a thing should be other than what it is is an indication of not only your view of that thing but also your attachment to that point of view.

The risk is that this attachment can blind us to the truths that

one – anything and everything outside of us has no inherent meaning, and two – the meanings and truths we assign to those things are not at all (or at least don’t have to be) fixed.

The more we grow our awareness of this, the more we work to have deeper understanding of our personal attachments, the better and more equipped we’ll be in living more intentional and purposeful lives.

Listen to the full episode below and read the transcript to get an expanded explanation.

Transcript: Path of the Jedi – Where Star Wars meets Personal Development

Episode #7 – Attachment in the Star Wars Universe Part 1

Originally released September 29, 2021

(Intro soundbite) It’s the fundamental difference between Sith and Jedi. The Sith are all about attainment, achievement, power, significance. The Jedi are all about a state of being in the here and now.

(Intro music/ main podcast)

All right! Welcome to Path of the Jedi, the podcast where Star Wars meets personal development. My name is Ronnie Cruz, your host for this amazing journey… well at least it’s amazing for me. I hope it’s as amazing for you as it is for me. Our goal here is to bring you guys in a new message, a new lesson that we take from Star Wars that you can use in your day-to-day lives. So let’s just get right into it. Let’s kick it off with news and updates.

For our first piece of news that I wanted to share with you guys: Officially as of this recording we are at 300 downloads! Actually just a little bit of 300. Last week we had 200. Then hit 250 over the weekend. And again as of this recording we’re just a little bit over 300.

I’m so excited for this guys. It really means a lot to me that you guys are not only just listening but continue to listen and continue to share and pass on the podcast with people. It says to me that you guys are getting value out of it and like I mentioned in the past, that just makes me want to work harder for you guys to continue to provide you guys good content. So again thank you, thank you, THANK YOU so much for helping us hit this milestone. We will continue to celebrate milestones down the road. The next milestone that we’re at we’re after is the 500 marks so help us get to the 500 mark.

Now speaking of that, I usually save this a portion of the news and updates towards the end, but I want to do it up front here and do the shout outs! For this week’s shout out I would like to recognize Jay de Leon and my sister Mary Ann de Leon, my brother-in-law and my sister. These two have been amazing the past few weeks super super supportive of the podcast. They’ve been loving it. They’ve been letting me know how much they love it and how much they appreciate the content. They’ve gone out and shared it with people, shared it with their friends. They’re texting people. They’re sharing it on their social feeds.

I wanted to follow up the announcement that we’ve hit over 300 downloads with this shot out because you guys have been a huge huge part of helping get us to 300. Thank you guys so much. Again, shout out to Jay and Mary Ann Deleon!

Now, if you have somebody that you’d like to give a shout out to, I would love to do that for you here on Path of the Jedi Podcast. Send an email to info@pathofthejedi.com with the subject heading “Shout Out”. In the email let me know who you want us to give a shout out to and what your message is. Again the email is info@pathoftheJedi.com

The next piece of news and updates: I want to celebrate Yoli Global! That’s right, Yoli Global is the network marketing company that I’m a part of, or that I have been a part of for the last 12 years. We just had our 12th annual convention… well actually now that I think about it, it’s only our 11th. We had to skip last year and so that’s why this year was even that much more special.

I wanted to bring up for a few reasons that I think are pertinent to this particular context with us here at Path of the Jedi. Number one, we just released a new line of products in a category that’s never been done before in network marketing – herbal tinctures that will help change your mood. Why do I bring this up?

I bring this up because I’m a huge proponent and advocate for mental health and mental health awareness. Our products, these new all natural herbal tinctures, will help you change your mood when you need. It I’m can help you change your mood actually instantaneously if you need it and also has long-term benefits for things like helping you reduce stress in the long term and helping you build your resilience.

So this is really really important from a mental health standpoint because of everything that we’re all facing right now. Whatever the stresses might be, whatever pressures that we might be feeling in our lives. Whatever anxieties we might be experiencing right now. We have all natural herbal tinctures that can help you address those things both in the short term and in the long-term.

This is incredibly important work it’s an incredibly important line of products and yeah well… we’re the first to to release these things in the network marketing space.

That’s number one. Number two, our keynote speaker for this past weekend was actually an individual by the name of Shawn Achor. Shawn is the author of a book called The Happiness Advantage and if you haven’t read it, I highly highly encourage you to read this book. He talks about some of the things I just mentioned when it comes to happiness, when it comes to resilience and being able to deal and face the things that we all face in our day-to-day life.

I’m going to talk more about Shawn Achor in a little bit through the course of this episode but if you want to pick up and read Shawn Achor’s book, again it’s The Happiness Advantage (<––– affiliate link). I highly encouraged you to pick up that book. I listened to it on Audible a handful of year back and really it’s made a huge difference in my perspective, in how I see things. So again the book is called The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor.

Okay, so for last piece of news and updates and I literally just saw this this morning… the new poster for the Book of Boba Fett dropped and it is amazing! The poster looks so badass. You can go check it out at our Twitter page @potjpodcast… it’s freaking amazing, guys. It’s amazing.

I know for Star Wars fans the Book of Boba Fett has been highly, highly anticipated. The series itself is going to be available on December 21st so it’s a nice little Christmas / New Year’s present to all of us Star Wars geeks from from LucasFilms. Again check out the poster. I shared it on her Twitter page: @potjpodcast

And that does it for news and updates.

All right now, in this episode we are going to attempt to talk about the monumental topic of ATTACHMENT in Star Wars. There’s lots to talk about with a particular topic so I am most definitely going to need to do this in multiple episodes. For those of you who don’t know or aren’t familiar with the concept of an apartment in Star Wars, the Jedi Order, one of the main principles that they live by is non-attachment when it comes to love and relationships and when it comes to possession.

Now arguably, their attachment to this interpretation of non-attachment is what led to their downfall, but that alone requires a whole episode on itself to talk about. For our purposes we are going to talk about relationships and possession. I want to hold off on that though until the next episode because there are a couple of other aspects of attachment that we need to build on first before we get to those things.

Number one, attachment to meanings and definition especially in the context of things you can’t control. And number two, attachment to outcomes.

Let’s start with the first one: meanings and definitions especially in the context of things that you cannot control. If we look at Anakin Skywalker it would seem that his entire life’s journey is a series of events completely out of his control. When we’re first introduced to him in Phantom Menace, he was enslaved. He is then subsequently freed but then is taken away from his mother and grows up in a completely foreign environment. And then immediately after that, his mentor the person that saved him gets murdered. And from then on for the rest of his life the subject of manipulation Palpatine.

Now we have to pose the question is Anakin a victim or could things have gone a completely different way. Now of course things happen the way they’re supposed to happen, and that’s a completely different conversation outside of what we’re talking about here. What I’m trying to say is that had Anakin been more aware of his own thoughts, the meanings and definitions that he was creating around the situations of his life, I think things could have gone a completely different way for him.

But because he kept buying into the meanings and definition that Palpatine were feeding him, he became more attached to those meetings and definitions. And because he became more attached to those things, he became more manipulable. Understand that the things that happened to Anakin, his life events are completely neutral… as it is for all of us. And it’s the meanings and definitions that he ascribed to those life events that determine how he reacted and there for determined the outcome throughout the course of his life.

Meanings and definition – or truths for those of you guys who have listen to [Path of the Jedi] Episode 4 from a few weeks back – these things reside in one place and one place only, and that’s the space between our ears. The more we become aware of this, the more purposeful and intentional we can be in creating our own outlook. And if we do that, we can be more purposeful and intentional with our responses. We can be more responsive as opposed to being reactive.

The vicious manipulative cycle that Palpatine perpetrated on Anakin was in feeding him the lie that he could control things that were actually completely out of his control. And every time Anakin tried, things would go sideways. And then every time things went sideways, Palpatine re-fed him some more lies and some more false meanings. Round and round it went. Anakin got more and more attached to the idea that he could control things that he actually couldn’t control leading to his inevitable turning to the Dark Side.

So there are two lessons we can learn from this. Number one: if we approach the things that happen to us in life from a neutral standpoint, we can then be more intentional and purposeful with the meanings we ascribe to those life events. [Them] we can be more intentional and purposeful with being more happy and fulfilled moment-to-moment… because the moments all we have.

Number two: ultimately there’s nothing outside of us that we can control… other people’s decisions, the things that happen to us… what we can control is exactly what number one said: the meanings and the definitions, the truth we tell ourselves about the events in our lives. Ultimately this helps us be more purposeful and intentional behind the choices we make allowing us to be more responsive as opposed to being reactive. It’s this process that actually helps with create better outcomes in our lives – inside out as opposed to outside in. As much as possible, approach each situation as a blank slate and that leaves you free to beautifully create whatever outcome you want to create.

This leads us to the second topic that I wanted to cover today: attachment to outcomes.

Before I go on, I want you guys to know in case you hear any background noise, the landscape guys are here they’re working on the yard as I record this. Also if you happen to notice any differences in my voice on this episode, it’s because I’m still recovering from the weekend of from all the cheering and yelling and laughing that we did at our convention in Salt Lake City. So apologies in advance for any discrepancies or changes in vocal quality and background noise.

Attachment to outcome is an interesting thing for me because as a coach and mentor it’s something that people come to me to help them achieve – to help them achieve new and different outcomes in their lives. So it may lead you to the question, “Why is attachment to an outcome a bad thing?”

In the case of Anakin, it’s exactly these things that we’ve been talking about today that led him to the Dark Side. Emperor Palpatine, or at the time Chancellor Palpatine, kept dangling this carrot in front of him saying, “You can have this. You can have this. You can have this and I will tell you how to get it.” And that’s how he kept continually being manipulated. It never really mattered how much Anakin achieved or accomplished. Palpatine was always going to dangle something in front of him to chase.

That’s the thing about outcomes. You might be able to achieve certain things, but there’s always another carrot. Now, I’m not saying that having goals and outcomes that you want to achieve, visions in your life… I’m not saying that that’s wrong. Our cybernetic brains need targets, they need goals to aim for. Having goals and a vision and outcomes that you want to achieve does exactly that – it gives your brain a target.

However, the biggest lie that Palpatine perpetrated with Anakin was in convincing him that happiness and fulfillment rested in his achievement of those outcomes. “I’ll be happy when I achieve this. I’ll be happy when I attain that.” We attach our happiness to some far-off event or far off circumstance and in the meantime in the here and now, we’re miserable. Even if we happen to be able to arrive at our desired destination, arrived at our desired outcome, once we get there we often realize that we’re still not happy. And you know what happens? We get back on the path of chasing another carrot.

Early on in my network marketing career I was miserable. I was so incredibly unhappy and I ascribed the meaning of that unhappiness, I had attached that unhappiness to my circumstances… because I was broke, because I was limited with the things I can do in my life. I told myself that once I achieve success in my business, once I achieve financial freedom in network marketing, then I would be happy. And you know what? Maybe I was able to use and leverage that unhappiness, that misery into driving me to succeed in this business.

But once I got there, once I achieve massive success and became one of the top earners in the entire company, I realized that I was still unhappy. In fact, I fell deeper and deeper into depression, one of the deepest depressions I’ve ever experienced in my life that lasted for years. That’s the inherent danger of being attached to an outcome that could realistically lead you further and further into the Dark Side.

It’s the fundamental difference between Sith and Jedi. The Sith are all about attainment, achievement, power, significance. The Jedi are all about a state of being in the here and now. So yes, having goals, having desired outcomes, creating new visions for yourself is very very important. Again your brain needs it, your brain needs a target. I set new visions and new goals for myself all the time. In fact, I have a whole new set of visions that I’ve got lined up for myself that are pushing me beyond what I currently thought I was capable of. And that’s awesome.

Setting a destination helps you appreciate and enjoy the journey. As cliche as it sounds you have to enjoy the journey. Because it’s on the journey that you become who you need to become in order to get to where you want to go. And if you don’t believe me read the book The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor.

In his book and in the talk that he gave over the weekend at our event, he sited research that proved scientifically people who live with more joy and happiness actually are more productive and therefore have better results and outcomes in their lives. It’s scientific!

So set new visions for yourself. Create new goals, create new outcomes with the understanding that it’s not the destination that will give you happiness and joy, but that is all about who you become along the way. And that it’s the meanings and definitions that we choose to attach to the experiences that were having in the here and now that actually give us the joy and fulfillment and the happiness that ultimately will actually lead us to getting closer and closer to our goals and destinations and outcomes…

And that’s going to do it for today’s episode. Wow! The funny thing is, guys we’re just scratching the surface of this topic of attachment in the Star Wars Universe. We’ll continue to talk about attachment in the next episode. Until then guys, if you have any questions or comments, reflections on what we’ve covered today, please absolutely, I want you guys to reach out. Hit me with an email with the topic of today’s episode in the subject heading. You can either write me a message or send me an mp3. I would love to play your mp3 with your thoughts on today’s episode. Of course you can also reach out and connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/potjpodcast or Twitter @potjpodcast

Beyond that, thank you guys again for tuning in to Path of the Jedi Podcast. It’s been an absolute joy and pleasure for me to be hanging out with you here today. If you haven’t subscribed go ahead and hit the subscribe button. If you have a rated and reviewed, I’d really appreciate that as well. But if not, no big deal. You guys are all amazing. Thank you so much. Be well be safe and may the Force be with you.

Learn more about the book The Happiness Advantage at our Recommended Reading list.