Seeing Through New Frames at Retreat

At our internal retreat at Kenneth Hahn Park we practiced Tai Chi and meditated in several beautiful spots including a Japanese garden, a grass field with a stream flowing through and a tree spotted hilltop overlooking Los Angeles. Each location had a slightly different feel and created new perspectives. At the final hilltop with a beautiful view of the city I was struck by inspiration. When you first arrive at the overlook, trees in the foreground frame the skyscrapers of downtown with snow capped mountains as a backdrop. As you get to the edge of the overlook there are no more trees and you are left with a wide-open panoramic view of everything West, North and East. The way that this frame and the absence of it changes what we take in, directing our awareness and opening it wider, sent me on an exploration of perspective and the power of framing.

G.K. Chesterton wrote on the usefulness of constraints: “Art is limitation; the essence of every picture is the frame.” If you take any great painting and imagine it without a frame, or instead framed from a different point of view, you will have a very different artwork. While Monet produced an entire series of 250 paintings of water lilies from his garden at home, most iconic paintings are one-offs like the Mona Lisa. When we look through that lens, we see through DaVinci’s eyes and we experience the soul of his subject, as well as the artist’s. If you expanded the frame to take in everything around the subject, our experience is diluted in a way. We may see Mona Lisa’s feet, her jacket hanging on a nearby chair, the doorway leading away from the room, etc. While this is a more complete picture, it lacks the drama and emotion that the frame brings into focus for us.

Perspective Changes Experience

In a similar way, we have very different experiences in life depending on our perspective. When we have a narrow perspective, it is easy to get drawn into the drama of our day. Take a step back, remind ourselves of the bigger picture and we will likely feel freed from the drama. Intense emotions flow from our attachment to things going our way, and when we see the big picture we usually realize that everything will be ok.

Martial Arts and meditation teach us how to switch between these mental and emotional states, zooming in and out when it suits us. In Kung Fu and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, we might focus on a specific technique or principle for a while to get better at one aspect. Then we switch to sparring or free rolling and free our minds to flow with our partner’s energy. If we never zoom in and focus on technique, we miss details. If we never zoom out and feel what’s going on around us, we miss the chance to use all our tools because we are attached to one.

Framing in Meditation

Meditation can have the curious effect of freeing our mind from distraction by focusing on the breath, then opening our mind to a full experience of ourselves and surroundings. In a way we pass through different frames, focusing and widening our experience. Mindfulness can and should be tied to small things like the ants crawling on our ankle as we meditate, as well as the vastness of consciousness and universe around us.

Try playing with this over the next few days, shifting frames and zooming in and out. In a conversation, try to shift your viewpoint so that you can see things from the other person’s point of view. When you go for a walk, focus on a single leaf, then see the whole tree, then the whole forest. Take one breath, then imagine your entire life is in the next one.