All paths of the Force are challenging and difficult to follow

All paths of the Force are challenging and difficult to follow, but each is hard in its own way. Yoda teaches that the Dark path is the quick and easy path. This is correct as you can easily get what you want when you have control over the Dark side, but there are also many other aspects of it that are hard. This lecture will discuss how it a few Jedi of different paths, find and view the Dark path as challenging.

The first and possibly the most visible way that the Dark side is difficult, is the loneliness. The Dark Jedi act as individuals, the life of a Dark Jedi is a cold and solitary one. Although there is a 'social structure' within the 'ranks' of the Darksiders, the majority of Darksiders feel that they are distanced from the rest of their peers and other people in their lives. This can come in many forms, from feeling superiority to just feeling different from normal people.

The Dark side also requires a lot of mental strength and discipline. This mental strength, discipline and control must be maintained ALL the time. This is interlinked with the force powers that a Dark Jedi has at their disposal. For a Dark Jedi it is VERY hard to heal physical damage. This is because to summon up the Dark side of the force, they must focus on all the hatred, anger, etc in their lives, and use this to use the force to heal. When the healing process begins, joy, starts to appear in the Dark Jedi's mind, joy that they are getting better.

As soon as the joy, an emotion of the light side, enters the Dark Jedi's mind, they lose their connection to the Dark side of the force and stop healing themselves. Control is needed and a lot of it, to keep the light side away.

A Dark Jedi must also always be thinking ahead, knowing the consequences of your actions, and looking forward to see what can be done in the future or present to aid your cause. This is considered to be in touch with the Unifying force that Yoda spoke of. A Darksider must always be in control and on top of things. They must also think with their mind, not their hearts or other parts of their bodies, their minds must also control every aspect of themselves. The body, thoughts, emotions, these must all be controlled by the mind.

So what is the goals of the Dark Jedi? Improvement and personal gain is one of them. As with all Jedi, they also do the bidding of their 'side' of the force. For a Darksider, this would be to destroy or corrupt things around them. Another smaller goal would be to overcome the hurdles that are faced while travelling down the Dark path. These hurdles are seen as ways to improve and strengthen the power and abilities of the Darksider, and a Darksider will often seek out a more challenging path to help achieve this.

When you come in contact with the Dark side of the force, either by you seeking it out, or it finding you, it puts you in control of a lot of power. Sometimes you don't even know what to do with it. As it gives you this power, it also asks a lot of you. Things that you would not normally do such as hurt people close to you. This may not seem like much to you, you might think, 'What should I care about them', but it actually does affect you in the end. This can be very difficult for someone being seduced by the Dark side, as it is conflicting with your previous positive beliefs, and you can end up torn between the two sides and their emotions. This is one of the earliest challenges.