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Darth Tutor on a damn fool crusade to get together a real Jedi Order
date posted: Mar 27, 2007 3:27 AM
The Ways of the Force IV: Premonitions and fast reflexes
My dear Padawan,
one key feature of most Jedi and Sith are their fast reflexes, yet premonitions are a rare gift. How to train this here on Earth.


Dealing with premonitions is a hazardous task. The key problem withg premonitions in the ordinary Jedi teachings is that they usually invoke strong emotions and claim a passionate response. Yet passion is exactly what the Yoda-Jedi order has its dificulties with.

Passion as an instinct
According to Qui Gon Jinn, a Jedi is allowed to follow his instincts. The line between following your passions and following your instincts can be a very thin one. What is required is a continuous testing of your instincts as well as your passions. To this end meditation is a suitable method. Instincts amd reflexes canbe learned and unlearned. Anyone who has ever experienced a duel, in fencing or any martial art, will know that standard reflexes often get you into more trouble rather then give you a opening in your opponents defenses. But these reflexes can, and must be unlearned. In fencing the key signal which tells you that you're overstretching or using the wrong reflex is balance. The wrong reflex usually leads you into a cascade of actions, where every next action merely serves to counter the unwanted side-effects of the previous action. Taking a firm stand, positioning your feet in the right way, following the right sequence of steps in attack and defense gives you the balance needed to be able to respond properly to your opponents moves and attacks. With a sufficient amount of training you not only make this a part f your standard repertoire of reflexes, but they also become absorbed in your instinctive manner of handling combat.
With passions it is exactly the same. I am convinced that Qui Gon, as an adept of the living force, was fully aware of this. If you work with your passions to promote and sustain balance at every step along the way they need not be feared. Then you can instictively respond passionately without risk.

Passions as Premonitions
Passions are closely associated with anticipation. Proper anticipation does not lead to deception but to fulfilment. If you are passionate about, say, the new RUSH album you will highly, but realistically, anticipate its arrival. Overestimation of passions is not the fault of the passions themselves, but of the one who uses them. Through experience and meditation you need to constantly recallibrate you anticipations and do so passionately. Passionately loving another human being is not blind; rather the opposite. It is being extremely aware of the subtelties and slight oscilations in his or her personality. Both to the lighter as well as to the darker aspects. Passion gives you focus, and focus makes you stronger, but it is not a blue-print for unreflected actionism. Premonitions become reliable when you passionately crave for them without ever forgetting that passion involves awareness of subtelties. Anakins dealing with his premonitions was just as faulty in this respect as Yoda's.

Premonitions and Reflexes: closing the circle
Let's come to a close my dearest Padawan. Premonitions, when all subtleties are kept in awareness, help you and guide you to sense into the future. Despite the fact that it is always in motion. If you are able to instictively deal with premonitions, even absorb them instinctively, you will be able to build them into your reflexes. This allows you to attain a level of anticipation that is required for true Jedi Mastery. The neccesary ingredient, awareness, is the shadow of balance. The force grants awareness as it grants balance to those who have the stamina to listen.