The Book of Joy

explained, “We must look at any given situation or problem from the
front and from the back, from the sides, and from the top and the bottom,
so from at least six different angles. This allows us to take a more
complete and holistic view of reality, and if we do, our response will be
more constructive.”
We suffer from a perspectival myopia. As a result, we are left
nearsighted, unable to see our experience in a larger way. When we
confront a challenge, we often react to the situation with fear and anger.
The stress can make it hard for us to step back and see other perspectives
and other solutions. This is natural, the Archbishop emphasized
throughout the week. But if we try, we can become less fixated, or
attached, to use the Buddhist term, to one outcome and can use more
skillful means to handle the situation. We see that in the most seemingly
limiting circumstance we have choice and freedom, even if that freedom
is ultimately the attitude we will take. How can a trauma lead to growth
and transformation? How can a negative event actually become positive?
We were being invited to see the blessing in the curse, the joy in the
sorrow. Jinpa offered a silver-lining thought experiment to take us out of
our limited perspective: Take something bad that happened in the past
and then consider all the good that came out of it.
But is this simply being Pollyanna? Are we seeing the world less
clearly when we view it through these rose-colored glasses? I do not think
anyone would accuse the Dalai Lama or Archbishop Tutu of not seeing
the struggles they have faced or the horrors of our world with keen and
unflinching vision. What they are reminding us is that often what we
think is reality is only part of the picture. We look at one of the
calamities in our world, as the Archbishop suggested, and then we look
again, and we see all those who are helping to heal those who have been
harmed. This is the ability to reframe life more positively based on a
broader, richer, more nuanced perspective.
With a wider perspective, we can see our situation and all those
involved in a larger context and from a more neutral position. By seeing
the many conditions and circumstances that have led to this event, we can
recognize that our limited perspective is not the truth. As the Dalai Lama