One interesting thing about Star Wars III was Palpatine explaining how in an effort to be a well rounded person of power one must study not only the light/Jedi use of the force but also the dark/Sith way, as though Jedi and Sith methods were two incomplete halves of a complete whole. I think that is a clever logical fallacy and a common spiritual trap since by definition STO is balance/wholeness and STS is imbalance/imcompletion, and to become a student of both is to taint a balanced wholistic approach with an imbalanced and corrupted element. It's like saying "For a well rounded diet one must include not only the healthy foods but also the worst of the junk foods, otherwise one's diet is incomplete."
Anyone catch the parallels between Revenge of the Sith and the Templar persecution in the 1300s? Both Jedi and Templars were gnostic knights, both were fighting in distant territory prior to the start of persecution. There is some similarity between the Jedis' relation to the early Palpatine and his predecessors and the Templars' loyalty to the Pope, and funny that the late Palpatine looked identical to Ratzinger (both have nine letters, but that doesn't mean anything...). After the Jedis were nearly wiped out, Yoda agreed that they must disappear and basically initiate a plan until eventually the time was right for their return and a return to balance. Likewise the Templars went underground and according to many sources (like Foucault's Pendulum) initiated a long term plan to eventually overthrow the forces of corruption. Lastly, Anakin was rejected from becoming a Jedi Master and this played a part in his carrying out the eventual persecution of the Jedis, and likewise it was Prince Philip the Fair who once tried becoming a Templar but was rejected and later brought about their persecution. (Anakin and Philip both have six letters, but that doesn't mean anything...)
[As for STA, doesn't that mean serving all by serving self? For instance: removing yourself from the games played between "lightsiders and darksiders" and just focusing on your own evolution which, via the Law of One, in some way benefits everyone's evolution.
STA would make perfect sense if the definition of STO and STS were similar to the Jedi/Sith duality Palpatine talked about or the definition Matrix V gave regarding the entertaining polarity between light and dark.
If you go by the Cass/Ra definition of STO, however, STO already qualifies as service-to-all since STO is beyond playing games and serves both self and others by serving self through serving others. If an STS being properly asks, STO gives, showing that pure STO does not take part in the duality.
I think the whole "battle between STO and STS" factions may actually involve entities who are neither 100% STO or 100% STS and are in training to become purely one or the other, but the training involves testing themselves through what we perceive as battles over balance and freewill vs deception and control.
Perhaps it's the halfway STO-wannabes-who-are-still-STS (myself included) who get involved in the polarity games because they serve a purpose in polarizing one completely toward balance (STO) or completely toward imbalance (STS). But that would illustrate shortcomings of incomplete polarization rather than of any particular Path itself.
Except for Yoda and the discarnate Obi Wan and Quigon, the Jedis seemed for the most part to be incomplete STO candidates still in training -- Yoda was wiser than the rest, so even among Jedi Masters there is difference in purity. I think that explains why they did not see evil in their midst, and why they're always running around slicing things up. That says more about their personal shortcomings and allegiance to the Republic than imperfections in the Jedi Way itself.]
Acquiring fringe knowledge is like digging for diamonds in a mine field.
