Sometimes I feel like Luke Skywalker.
You know the scene - he's living on Tatooine with Aunt Beru and Uncle Owen. They buy two new droids - R2D2 and C3PO for the farm. Luke's talking to C3PO. The dialogue goes like this:
C3PO: Is there anything I might do to help?
LUKE: Well, not unless you can alter time, speed up the harvest, or
teleport me off this rock!
C3PO: I don't think so, sir. I'm only a droid and not very
knowledgeable about such things. Not on this planet, anyways. As a
matter of fact, I'm not even sure which planet I'm on.
LUKE: Well, if there's a bright center to the universe, you're on
the planet that it's farthest from.
Doing the last two posts hasn't helped me with this feeling - London 1966, San Francisco 1967 were happening, vital places.
Tatooine is so small, so insignificant in the universe, so far away from the action.
I know 'wherever you go there you are' and that this thinking is counter productive.
I know this wheel out of kilter feeling. I have felt it before. It sneaks up on me from time to time.
The Buddha described it as duhkha (doo-ka). It's not an easy word to translate but 'dissatisfaction with your lot' is close. 'Suffering' is often used as a blanket term for this general deal: something basic and important isn't right.
Luke is definitely feeling duhkha.
Luke's mental suffering happens because he doesn't get what he wants. He's forced to live on the farm on Tatooine and endure what he doesn't want.
The fact is - we can't turn our heads away from pain. We have to face it or we are never going to find our way out of the situation we are in - this situation of duhkha.
We can only deal with pain by facing it squarely!
Love and peace - Wozza
P.S. Check out this awesome fan made extended trailer for The Force Awakens: