Siddhartha, Star Wars, and Joseph Campbell

Throughout Siddhartha and Star Wars: Episode IV, the heroes endure multiple different teachers with many teaching methods to help lead the student on his journey of achieving his greater life purpose. Some teaching methods prove to be better than others. In Siddhartha, the wise Vasudeva and Buddha try to impart their knowledge onto Siddhartha. While both of them have achieved enlightenment themselves, only one of these teaching styles works for Siddhartha. Vasudeva isn’t straightforward nor does he have a structured way of teaching Siddhartha. Instead, he tells him to connect with the river and guides the way Siddhartha should think. Vasudeva throws him a bone, but doesn’t lead him directly all the way.

The Buddha on the other hand, has a structured society and followers who have a routine and guidelines to the way they live. Siddhartha felt too much pressure to conform and was not able to find his own personal enlightenment because of this.  In Campbell’s words, “A good teacher is there to watch the young person and recognize what the possibilities are - then to give advice, not commands”.

Similarly, Luke is suddenly taken under the wing of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan teaches in a similar method to Vasudeva in that he guides Luke on how to “feel the Force”, but is still very ambiguous and let’s Luke learn through trial and error how he should channel the Force and reach his full potential as a Jedi.

Clearly, the most effective style of teaching is the one that guides the hero in a more indirect way by showing them a spiritual way of looking at things rather than a direct, structured, and forceful path. Campbell describes the teacher as the wise, old, and experienced archetype that people have all grown accustomed to. Often times they are mysterious and seem to hold much wisdom beyond the scope of the hero ever coming to understand. 

In both Siddhartha and Star Wars: Episode IV, the hero is forced to leave the role he is comfortable with and use what he has learned to find his place in life.  Siddhartha leaves many teachers because they don’t give him a chance to use the teachings he has learned in a way that is helpful for him.  He realizes that a student must be able to learn through experiences and not through words.  The same situation happens with Luke.  He is taught the ways of the Force by training exercises where he has direct contact with the Force rather than Obi-Wan just explaining what the Force is.  Both enlightenment and the Force are feelings and cannot be learned through words.  Siddhartha and Luke realize that in order to discover enlightenment or the Force, they must learn through trial and error. 

Siddhartha makes many mistakes on his journey to enlightenment.  However, he only realizes that they are mistakes because he has experienced them himself.  He would have never believed that being a follower of Gotama wouldn’t help him achieve his goal if he had not left his father and gone to see Gotama himself.  

The same can be said for Luke. He was not a master of the Force right away. He had to practice and make mistakes, such as when he couldn’t deflect all the blasts with his lightsaber from the training ball.  He had to do activities with the Force in order to understand it.  Eventually, the “wise, old, and experienced” teacher leaves and the hero is forced to finish their quest by himself.  Without the guide to fall back on, the hero is allowed to put his teachings into action.

When Vasudeva walks off into the forest, Siddhartha is left alone.  Vasudeva doesn’t want his thoughts to become Siddhartha’s, so he leaves him.  As Joseph Campbell says, “it’s quite possible to be so influenced by the ideals and commands of your neighborhood that you don’t know what you really want and could be.”  He has taught Siddhartha the basics for enlightenment but he wants Siddhartha to be able to discover the joys of enlightenment without his thoughts getting in the way.  

Obi-Wan does the same thing.  He wants Luke to use the Force in his own way to defeat the Empire.  He doesn’t want how he uses the Force to affect how Luke uses it.  In the end, it is much more effective for the hero to use the teachings in their own way than it is for them to use it how their guide does.