Encore Cultivating Joy During Times of Darkness: The Eight Pillars Monday, December 9, 2024

The great spiritual leaders, Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama wrote about their commitment to compassion and joy and expressed their ideas in their book, The Book of Joy. Desmond Tutu called himself the “prisoner of hope,” and his message of hope and joy will live on. Many people in our world have expressed being tired and feeling a sense of hopelessness about the world's condition. Desmond Tutu faced great hardship in his life, yet he was hopeful about the world condition, and he would say, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” Reena Patel, LCSW discusses with Elaine Miller-Karas, the meaning of joy and how we can be lifted from suffering and hopelessness to embrace the spring of joy within each one of us. They discuss the eight pillars of joy: perspective, acceptance, humor, forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and generosity. Listeners will be asked to explore how they can nurture their joy to live life with greater meaning and restore hope. The Dalai Lama states, “There are many different angles for every event in life.” He uses the terms “wider perspective” and “larger perspective.” These involve taking a step back to look at the bigger picture. A wider perspective moves us out of a limited self-awareness and self-interest to the possibility of a global interest. Desmond Tutu expressed the idea of a “God’s-eye perspective,” which he stated allows for the birth of empathy, which creates joy not only in the one but also in the many. This wider perspective leads to the possibility of empathy opening the door to understanding the journeys of others and can prevent us from building walls that keep us from welcoming potential friends and allies. Different perspectives can turn the “I” into the “we.” Desmond Tutu reminded us of the Overview Effect. He stated, “Many astronauts report that once they glimpsed the Earth from space—a small blue ball floating in the vast expanse, lacking our human-made borders—they never looked at their personal or national interests in quite the same way again. They saw the oneness of terrestrial life and the preciousness of our planetary home.” (Dalai Lama et al., 2016). There perspectives are needed during these times.