縁の意義を見失ったジェダイ騎士団The Jedi: An Order that Fell Out of Touch

晩期の旧共和国でのジェダイ騎士団はフォースに対してかなり独断的な解釈を取り、そのあげくフォースの全体を見えなくなってしまったと言っても過言ではない。そして、その独断的な解釈が足枷になり、フォースの流れを自由かつ柔軟に対応できなくなってしまうことになった。敢えていうなら、この独断的な解釈に対する「確信」がいつの間にか「執着」へと変異し、ジェダイ騎士団の礎に大きな亀裂を拓いてしまった。
The Jedi Order in the waning days of the Old Republic held a very dogmatic view of the Force. Indeed, it would be no exaggeration to say that this dogma prevented them from fully seeing the Force, acting as a sort of shackles that denied them the ability to freely and flexibly respond to the flow of the Force. In the end, the case can be made that this sense of conviction placed in their own dogmatic interpretation transformed into a sense of attachment that cracked the foundations of the Jedi Order.
 
「執着」という単語はスターウォーズファンの耳に馴染みのある単語であろう。「執着=暗黒面の道」というイメージを植え付けさせたのはエピソード3「シスの復讐」にアナキンへの諭しとしてマスターヨーダが言った言葉。「執着は嫉妬を生む。それは貪欲の影じゃ。」「執着」は「執」と「着」で構成されている二字熟語であり、どちらも意味深い字でもあるが、ここで検証してみたいのは「執」の字である。「スターウォーズ:漢字の奥義」はこう解説する:「執」の「幸」は「手かせ」のこと。手かせをはめられ、ひきまずいている人のさまをかたどっている。つまり、「とらえる」の意。そこから「じっと保持する」という意味が生まれた。執着、執心などの熟語はいずれも、何かにしつこくこだわることを意味する。」
The word “attachment” is likely a familiar one to many a Star Wars fan. It is often considered to be synonymous with the road to the Dark Side, an image that was firmly planted by the admonishment that Master Yoda gave to Anakin in Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith: “Attachment leads to jealousy, the shadow of greed, that is.” The Japanese word used to convey the meaning of “attachment” in this context is shuuchaku (執着). The two kanji characters that make up this word hold deep meaning in their own right, but here I would like to focus specifically on the first one, 執 (shuu). The book Mastering Kanji through Star Wars provides this insight into the character: “The 幸 part of the character 執 implies “shackles.” The shape of the character is meant to evoke the image of a person on their knees with their hands bound; in essence someone who has been captured. This gave rise to the meaning of “fiercely preserve/hold on to”. The Japanese words shuuchaku (執着) and shuushin (執心) both carry the meaning of holding on to something (idea, belief) possessively and steadfastly.  f:id:akiruno_life:20201206225146j:image

Source: Disney/Lucasfilm

 

本書はその後にこう付き加える:「何かをしっかりと守り続けることは、必ずしも悪いことばかりとはいえない。だが、ひとつのものに執着し、こだわり続ければ、自分をそこに縛り付けることになってしまう。逆に自分が縛られて、自由を失うことになりかねないだろう。ジェダイの師達が執着を禁じたのは、そのせいに違いない。」しかし、皮肉にもその執着に対する独断的な解釈がジェダイ騎士団を縛りつけることになり、フォースを読み取る自由を失わせることに繋がった。その結果、本来守るべきものを守れなくなってしまった。それは「銀河の平和」、そしてその平和の中に暮らしたい希望を持つのは「民」である。ジェダイ騎士団が民へ目を配れなくなったのはフォースに対するその独断的な解釈を守ることにあまりにも必死であったため、気付かないうちに銀河社会を疎んじることになってしまったからだ。
The book follows up the explanation of the character 執with this passage: “The desire to steadfastly protect something is not necessarily bad in of itself. However, if you remain overly fixated on that one thing, you eventually become attached to it. In a different light, you become bound by that attachment, which can eventually deprive you of your own liberty to act. This is clearly the motivation behind the Jedi masters decision to prohibit attachments.” Ironically, however, this dogmatic interpretation of “attachment” ended up shackling the Jedi Order itself, depriving it of the liberty to read the Force. As a result, they ultimately became unable to protect the very thing they were supposed to protect: peace in the galaxy, and the citizens who desired to live their lives in peace. The Jedi lost sight of these citizens because they had failed to realize they had grown indifferent to the galactic society at large, the consequence of their fervent commitment to upholding their dogmatic views of the Force.
 
本来の意義を見失ったジェダイの在り様を如実に物語るシーンはクローン・ウォーズの最後のシーズンの第七話にある。ジェダイ―騎士団を去ったアナキン・スカイウォーカーの元パダワンであったアソーカ・タノコルサントアンダーワールドにマルテス姉妹と出会い、その二人と組んで手を貸すことになる。ある仕事のために惑星ケッセルに行った三人だが、パイクの犯罪組織に捕まれてしまう。牢の中に計画がしくじった理由をもめる中、ジェダイめいた発言をしたアソカ(実は元ジェダイだが)に対して姉のラファが怒り出して、姉妹が何故ジェダイを気に食わない理由を明かす。アソーカと出会うの数年前にマルテス家族がズィロー・ザ・ハットの脱獄事件に巻き込まれ、両親がその事件の犠牲者にもなってしまった。両親と住居が失われてしまった二人の姉妹を訪れたジェダイ―が手助けすることもなく、「フォースが共にあります」だけと言い、その場を去った。
Episode seven in the final series of The Clone Wars provides a lucid example of how the Jedi had lost sight of their purpose. Ahsoka Tano, former Padawan of Anakin Skywalker, has made her way to the underworld of Coruscant after leaving the Jedi Order. There she meets the Martez sisters, and ends up helping them with some jobs. One of these jobs takes them to Kessel, but the three of them end up getting captured by the Pike criminal organization. In the prison cell, an argument ensues over why their plan went awry, with the older sister Rafa angered by the Jedi-like comment that Ahsoka makes, prompting her to reveal why the two sisters do not like the Jedi. She then proceeds to describe how a few years back her parents got caught up in the escape of gangster Jiro the Hutt, with both of them losing their lives as a result. After losing their parents and home, Rafa describes how they were visited by a Jedi. However, rather than offering a helping hand, the Jedi merely says “May the Force be with you” and then goes on her way.
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Source: Disney/Lucasfilm

 

二人の人生を悲劇にしてしまった事件にジェダイが絡んだことを知ったアソーカがかなりショックを受けた。そして、多くの銀河系の民の目にジェダイはどのように映っているのかを遂に悟った。フォースに対する独断的な解釈に執着してしまったジェダイが、その同じフォースを通して人々と縁で結ばれていること、そしてその縁が正しく機能するため何よりも必要なのは思いやりであることを忘れてしまった。それなのに、戦争と政治のことばかりを優先した結果、コルサントアンダーワールドを始め銀河系の数多くの惑星の民の日常に目を配る余裕が失われてしまった。そこでジェダイに見捨てられてしまったとの思いが民の中に芽生えてしまうのは当然のことであったろう。
The revelation that the Jedi were involved in the incident which brought tragedy into their two lives was a shock to Ahsoka. It was then that she came to realize how the Jedi were perceived by many of the people in the galaxy. The Jedi’s fixation on their dogmatic view of the Force made them forget that they were connected to all those people through that same Force. They had also forgotten that the most important thing to make those connections work was empathy. Instead, the Jedi had come to give priority to war and politics, leaving them with little room to take stock of the daily lives of the Coruscant’s underworld inhabitants and other peoples across the galaxy. It is only natural that the belief that the Jedi had abandoned them would take root among them.
 
このマルテス姉妹の過去の話を聞いたとき思い浮かんだのは「センゴク」という歴史漫画シリーズからあるシーンであった。このブログで何回も取り上げたこの歴史漫画だが、その醍醐味は一次資料に基づいた歴史の研究が辿り着いた新説を付け加えたストーリーだけではなく、人間の性に満ちた物語の展開だ。そのシーンは「センゴク権兵衛」の第12巻からである。四国入りの戦いで大敗を喫してしまった仙石権兵衛は主君である豊臣秀吉に改易を命じられ、大名の座から降ろされた。その後、己が如何に進むべきかを知るために、日本の真言宗の聖地である高野山でしばらく居候することにした。歩むべき道を模索しながら古渓(こけい)という高僧と出会うことになる。ある日、古渓が住職を務める大徳寺で和尚と拝謁することになった権兵衛が、元主君である豊臣秀吉が暴君に変わりつつであるとの懸念を打ち明かす。二人の会話の一部を下記の通り抜粋する:
The story of the Martez sisters’ past brought to mind a scene from Sengoku, a series of historical manga set in the Warring States Period that I’ve referenced numerous times on this blog. The manga crafts a tale that interweaves new historical research based on primary source documents. On top of that, the narrative is steeped in human drama. The scene that came to mind is from Volume 12 of Sengoku Gonbei. Protagonist Gonbei has been stripped of his standing as a daimyo (warlord) by his master Toyotomi Hideyoshi for the crushing defeat he suffered during the invasion of the island of Shikoku. He sets out for Koyasan, home to the Shingon (True Word) sect of Japanese Buddhism, in a quest to figure out how to move forward. In his search for his calling, he meets an esteemed Zen priest by the name of Kokei. One day Gonbei has the privilege of visiting with Kokei at Daitokuji, the temple over which he presides, and it is there that he reveals his concern that his former master is on his way to becoming a tyrant. Here is an excerpt from their conversation.
 
古渓:世の万物は縁によって繋がっておるもの。
Kokei: All things in creation are interlinked through “en”.
 
権兵衛:ああ、高野山で教わりました。
Gonbei: Ah yes, that is something I learned at Koyasan.
 
古渓:いかにも。世間は殿下(豊臣秀吉)に支配され、殿下は世間にせっつかれる。そういう繋がりに。
Kokei: But of course. Our society, the world as we know it, is governed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Society in turn is a force acting on him, and in a way pressing him to take action.
 
古渓:然らばもし、世間が天下人を疎んじ、天下人が世間を疎んずれば、天下は悪しき縁の流れに向かっていきましょう。
Kokei: Herein lies the conundrum. If society begins to look coldly on the ruler, and if he begins to neglect society, then the “en” binding all things will sour and head in the wrong direction.
 f:id:akiruno_life:20201206225514j:image

Source: Kodansha


ここでもう一度「執着」という言葉に戻りたい。スターウォーズに置いてこのコンセプトを元の英語で「attachment」で表現している。しかし、「attachment」には「執着」以外の意味がその英語の語彙にある。「attachment」の類義語の一つは「connection」であり、これをまた日本語にすると「結び」や「絆」や先ほど紹介した古渓と権兵衛の話に出てきた「縁」という意味合いが訳出される。「結」と「絆」と「縁」との三文字の共通点は「糸」の部首で、これが「繋がっている」、つまり「connected」の意味合いを強調している。そして、「縁」には英語の「connection」より深い意味合いがあり、敢えて言うなら「フォースを通して繋がっている」と読み取れるではないかと拙僧が思う。
Here I’d like to take a step back and look at the word “shuuchaku (執着)” again. The original English word for this concept in Star Wars is “attachment.” However, the meaning of this word is more than just what the Japanese word “shuuchaku (執着)” implies. One synonym of the word “attachment” is “connection”, and taking this word and translating it back into Japanese leads us to words such as “musubi (結び; “ties”)”, “kizuna (絆; “bond”)”, and “en (縁; “connection”)”, the latter of which we just saw in the conversation between Kokei and Gonbei. The kanji characters in all three of these Japanese words share 糸(ito), which on its own means “thread”, and here it reinforces the idea of “connected.” The word “en (縁)” conveys a deeper sense of connection than the English equivalent, and I feel it carries a similar connation to being connected through the Force.
 
さて、この日英の言語の意味合いの検証を通してある結論に辿り着く。ジェダイが「執着」をあまりにも必死で否定しようとした結果、縁を持つことも拒否することになってしまった。縁を通して人と親しくなって絆を築いていくこともある。でも、ヨーダがアナキンに話した執着の定義によると、絆は執着の一つであり、その絆を失う恐れが暗黒面への糸口にもなり得る。だからこそ、暗黒面への糸口を最小限にするためにジェダイ騎士団は外の世間と積極的に結びを築こうしなかったし、フォース使いの子供を早い段階で見つけ出し家族から切り離してジェダイ寺院に連れて行った。換言すれば、それが「縁」を切る方針に等しいでもあった。だからジェダイが世間を疎んじるようになったという思いが銀河系の民の多くに芽生えたではないかと拙僧が思う。
This study of the nuances in these Japanese and English words leads to this conclusion: the Jedi’s fervent drive to reject attachments led them to reject connections. The connections people form with others can lead to deeper bonds (the aforementioned “kizuna (絆)”, but according to the definition of “attachment” that Yoda gave to Anakin, these bonds are a form of attachment, and the fear of their loss could potentially open the path towards the Dark Side. As such, the Jedi made it a point not to actively build deeper ties with the world outside the Order, and to identify children capable of using the Force early on, take them away from their families, and bring them to the Jedi Temple. Put differently, this amounted to a policy of severing ties with the larger world. That is why I feel the idea that the Jedi had grown indifferent to society at large took root among many in the galaxy.
 
では、ジェダイはこの独断的な解釈から解放され縁を正しくとらえるために何をすれば良かったのだろうか?そのヒントは古渓と権兵衛の話の続きにある。牧伯(ぼくはく:大名諸侯のこと)へどうやって戻ればいいかを知りたい権兵衛に古渓がこう答えた:
The question then is what should the Jedi have done to free themselves of their dogma and adopt the correct view of what it means to be connected (i.e., have attachments)? The next part of the conversation between Kokei and Gonbei provides us with some hints. Gonbei seeks to know how he can return to the ranks of daimyo. This is the answer that Kokei gives him:
 
“然らば、どうやって戻るか?自我や煩悩に誘引されぬ事。己が必ず正しいと思わぬ事。己が必ず間違いと思わぬ事。「己」も所詮は「縁」の狭間にあるように見える存在。つまり、「無」。是を知らば、自ずと良縁は見つかる。縁に導かれるがまま、貴殿はいずれ牧伯たらん事疑いなし。”
“If returning to the ranks of daimyo is what you seek, the question then is how you go about doing that. Do not succumb to your ego or passions. Do not believe you are completely in the right, but do not believe that you are completely in the wrong. Remember that you are the visage of a presence within this web of “en (縁; connections)”, one without form. If you recognize these truths, good “en” will come your way. If you let “en” be your guide, you will find your way back to the daimyo ranks. Of that I am certain.”

f:id:akiruno_life:20201206225631j:image

Source: Kodansha
 
この言葉を初めて目に通したとき、真っ先に思い浮かんだのは「最後のジェダイ」で描写されるルークであった。ルークスカイワーカという伝説により生み出された自我に誘引され、自分が新なジェダイ騎士団を自ら築けると思っていた。そして、その自分のやり方とヨーダやオビ・ワンから受け継いだジェダイの教えが正しいと思い込んでいた。でも、甥のベン・ソロに宿る闇を見ていくうちに、自分の父親であったアナキン・スカイワーカと同じ道を歩むことになるとの恐れに屈して、その闇を消すため一瞬で自分の甥を殺そうと思った。それはまさに自我と煩悩に誘引された結果。
The first time I read these words, my mind went to the way in which Luke is portrayed in The Last Jedi. We see how Luke had succumbed to the ego born of the legend of “Luke Skywalker”, convinced that he could build a new Jedi Order. This Luke believed that his approach and the teachings bequeathed to him by Yoda and Obi Wan were in the right. However, when he saw the darkness growing within his own nephew Ben Solo, he became afraid that he would venture down the same path that his father Anakin Skywalker walked down. Luke let this fear overwhelm him, and for a fleeting second entertain the thought of killing his own nephew in a bid to expunge the darkness.

f:id:akiruno_life:20201206225712p:image

Source: Disney/Lucasfilm
 
あのことをやろうとした自分に失望にしたルークがフォースを始めすべての縁を切って、惑星アクトに引き篭もることにした。でも、レイとの出会いのお蔭で新な「縁」が形成され、そしてその縁が仲間とフォースとの絆を思い出させた。「己」も所詮は「縁=フォース」の狭間にあるように見える存在であり、フォースを通して「無」となり得ることを改めて思い知る。この「無」を英語にすると「nothing」と訳出されることが多いだけど、仏教においてこの「無」は「無限」に近い意味合いもある。レイが作った良縁に導かれたルークは、フォースを通してかつて自分が持った絆と再び結んで、自分を無にして新ら希望を銀河系に与えた。良縁のお蔭で、ジェダイの歩むべき道を遂に見つけた。そして、それが銀河系にとって良き縁の流れを作り出した。
Disappointed with himself for what he attempted to do, Luke cut himself off from the Force and all the connections (attachments) he had and shut himself away on Ahch-to. However, his encounter with Rey gave rise to a new “en (connection)”, causing him to remember the ties with his friends and bond he had with the Force. He rediscovered that he was no more than a visage of a presence in this web of “en”, which in this case was the Force, and through that he could transcend form. In Japanese, the word that Kokei used to describe this idea of transcendence to Gonbei was “mu (無)”. This word is often translated to “nothing” in English, but in a Buddhist context it has a meaning more along the lines of “infinite potential (due to lack of form)”. Guided by the good connection formed by Rey, Luke reached out through the Force to rekindle the bonds he once held, and deliver a new hope to the galaxy through his own transcendence. He discovered the path Jedi are supposed to take, and it started with getting back in touch. In the end, this pushed the “en” in the galaxy in the right direction.

f:id:akiruno_life:20201206225828j:image

Source: Disney/Lucasfilm