The author recently watched the new Star Wars movie. Excellent, it was.
 Prior to watching it, I viewed the original three, "Episodes IV, V, and VI". They were all enjoyable to watch. I do suppose it could be said that the acting in Episode IV was a bit tedious, and that the Special Effects were a lot more bland than I remember. For instance the Light Sabers were just straight beams - clearly simple film edits - in those earlier movies. But they were intricate, pulsating multicolored flames in the latest one.
 But the real power of those earlier movies was that they contained some pretty profound observations on life and Eastern Philosophy when they talked about the "Force".
 Most of the good stuff is in Episode V. Some excerpts:
 "What’s in there?" asked Luke about a dark area in the wetlands. Yoda replies: "Only what you take with you". (In other words, "what's in there" is heavily colored by memories of past fears and past failures - memories that we have buried but buried alive.)
 ". . . Your weapons – you will not need them". Of course, Luke took his light saber anyway.
 "It (the task of raising the ship out of the water) is no different than raising the small stone. The difference is in your mind. . . You must unlearn what you have learned."
 "OK. I will give it a try."
 "No. Do or do not. There is no try."
 Later, Yoda says, "My ally is the Force. Life creates it – makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us." (This is right out of the Tao Te Ching: "Thus it is that the Tao produces all things, nourishes them, brings them to their full growth, nurses them, completes them, matures them, maintains them, and overspreads them.")
 "Luminous Beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere". (That is, we are all part of the Universal Consciousness. There are no inanimate objects.)
 Then Yoda raises the ship out of the water.
 "I don't believe it."
 "And that is why you failed." (We are similiarly exorted by the Buddha and other Spiritual teachers to believe in the affirmations we make: "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become". - quotes from the Buddha)
 And the latest Star Wars movie, Episode VII, Maz Kanata echoes Yoda (and the Tao Te Ching): " I am no Jedi, but I know the Force. It moves through and surrounds every living thing. Close your eyes. Feel it. The light; it's always been there. It will guide you."

 Not too bad for a couple of sci-fi flicks. . .

And here's that Zen master, Yoda himself. (From the "Images in Star Wars Episode V" on IMDb:) Link here