Spirituality/Philosophy and Wheel of Time (MoL spoilers)

[Morgana Arakos]

Has anyone read anything particularly insightful about philosophy in Wheel of Time? I just (finally) finished Memory of Light, and I have so many thoughts about Rand's final realizations regarding the nature of good and evil. It seems to me that much of the series is fairly openly influenced by eastern philosophy -- right down to the yin yang Aes Sedai symbol -- and I'd love to read a more detailed analysis of how this plays out in the story.

 

[Talothyn Greycloak]

*sighs heavily*
Ok, one of the biggest reasons deep philosophical discussions of the WoT are difficult is that the world of tWoT exists in its own epistemology. That is, the fundamental beliefs of the people there are defined outside of anything that directly maps to a real world equivalent without ignoring some critical detail mentioned in the canon. That does not mean an effort cannot be made though.

Let's start with one of the key points of philosophy in the series itself. First, it is offered in the series, and accepted as fact, that what we would call magic exists. The One Power. Given that, there are a number of philosophies about how it should be used on display throughout the series, but one interesting point that remains constant is that said use almost ALWAYS means controlling or influencing other people. Thus, at the end of the day, to wield saidar or saidin is to wield power regardless of what you do with it.
We can have an interesting discussion on what it means to wield power ethically and morally, but I would start with the idea that I don't believe either the Red Ajah or the Blue, as evidenced in the series, are as a whole, very moral or ethical organizations.

What do you think?