Uggggh. This is probably my biggest beef with Star Wars as a franchise: I hate how it holds up stoicism as the pinnacle of enlightenment, & asserts that having feelings is bad. It’s such toxically masculine BS.
I had a bit of a dad like that. But he did explain it to me.
Mainly, it's a "when you learn to tolerate an inevitable bad thing, that makes the lesser bad things feel like nothing. So you feel like you can face anything, instead of making mountains out of every molehill or obstacle in your way."
Framing is important. That conclusion is a good one, but it's not an inevitable conclusion to bad experiences without proper guidance.
In the real world there are a sizable amount of people who think their bad experiences give them entitlement.
I agree. I am a comfy person, I prioritize my comfort. But when there's a setback I sometimes remember those lessons. To me, it's a distress management approach philosophy. Bad or annoying things will inevitably happen.
Sigh. I guess it means that if you suffer, you become a more interesting or enlightened person? Which, like… maybe yes, maybe no. I think to some degree, suffering can cause people to be more empathetic. But not necessarily. For some it does the opposite. So yeah. All in all, kinda a bullshit idea.
My take is that this kind of stances is part of why the order fell. It's an aspect of Legend that I liked, that Luke decided to tone it down a little. It's kind of painful to see the new Canon having Luke gearing straight back to it, in the Mandalorian.
www.shortpacked.com/comic/abstin...
The idea (and this is true in therapy also) is to have the emotions but not be attached to them, which means not identifying with them. "There is anger" vs. "I am angry." Litany Against Fear from Dune is a similar mechanism. The emotion is allowed but not savored, and then there it goes.
As for suffering, yeah, it depends how you respond to it whether it builds or destroys your character. The above is basically Buddhist, the goal of which is to recognize suffering (but not pain) as an illusion. Suffering being attachment (identification with, savoring of) pain.
