Living Life As It Is: Chapter 7
The Wide View
Chapter Seven – The Wide View
Identifying with the sky is a universal human experience…. There is a feeling that takes us out of ourselves and allows us to view our concerns from a wider perspective…. Having a wide perspective is called “Takkan” in Japanese. I came across this word in an essay written by my father. He explained how many unnecessary worries in life come from being attached to and victimized by a narrow, ego-centered view.
~Rev. Koyo Kubose
Wide Open
The Oxford Dictionary lists the following definitions for the phrase “wide open”: 1) Fully open; "the door was wide open". 2) Vulnerable, especially to attack; "the system is wide open to fraud". 3) Completely unresolved or unpredictable; "the election is wide open with six candidates in serious contention for the seats".
We’ve all used the phrase, “wide open” many times. But I’ve been thinking about the phrase as a way to remember key Buddhist teachings. And it is a helpful tool for me to reflect on and share how I wasn’t open at all, let alone “wide” open, during my almost never-ending pandemic panic.
In the first definition, it implies full openness, having the door of our minds open to a wider view or perspective beyond self-concern.
In the second definition, if we open our hearts in a limitless way, it leaves us “wide open” to being hurt. It leaves us unprotected from threats of insult or other forms of attacks on the ego or ‘self’. It also leaves us less vigilant against physical threats.
And, in the third definition, I find the teaching of “beginner’s mind” or “don’t know mind”. We don’t know what will happen so we shouldn’t cling to possible results we believe will happen. Because of change and impermanence, we can never be sure of how things will play out despite what we believe will be the logical results. So, what if, when we put on “don’t know mind” and take a wide view of everything, including our own hearts and mind, we discover there is no vulnerability?
During the years 2000 to early 2025, I was tightly closed and contracted in both my mind and body. The opposite of those three definitions would apply to me. I acted open in some ways, like sharing with others how I was immunocompromised and also that I was sad about being locked away from life. But that openness was communicating to others what I believed, which was a belief constricted around self-concern and vigilance against potential threats to my immune system and closed to “don’t know mind”. I was a walking defense system who rationalized that defense because I believed I could possibly get very sick. I was not open to an opposing belief that maybe I wouldn’t get sick, even if exposed to the Covid virus.
As Brother Phap Hai wrote in his book, The Eight Realizations of Great Beings” Buddhist Wisdom for Waking Up to Who You Are, which we recently began studying in our Everyday Sangha:
The starting point for the development of wisdom is admitting to ourselves that we don’t know things completely—even if we think we do. We must be willing to ask ourselves, “Are you sure?”