Titled Mission: Joy, Finding Happiness In Troubled Times, it is a discussion between the Dalai Lama and the late Desmond Tutu, dear friends who have each known hard, both personally and as spiritual leaders charged with walking their followers through turbulent waters. And yet, despite the weighty subject matter that references the horrors of the apartheid era in South Africa and the attempted decimation of the Tibetan culture by the Chinese government, this is not a somber film.
Far from it. These two men are hilarious, giggling frequently, delighting in one another's company, and overflowing with compassion and a palpable joy. Theirs is a discussion about how we, too, might find a way to embody these qualities more consistently in our own lives. When individuals with such impressive resumés speak of transmuting hardship, we really oughta listen.
This is no Hallmark, Pollyannaish pap. Their insights are born of suffering, both witnessed and personally experienced. They acknowledge that turning the negative into something life~affirming is no easy task. And yet they assure us we are capable of doing precisely that. "It's how we are made," says Tutu. "We're wired to be compassionate...to be caring for the other."
The Dalai Lama seconds that sentiment in his halting English. "Basic human nature is goodness," and he encourages us to see that fact clearly. "There are very sad things, very negative things, but...there are much more positive things." Tutu agrees. Referencing Doctors Without Borders as a prime example of those who give selflessly, Tutu asserts that "people just give and give, because that is actually who we really are...We are made for goodness."
I particularly love this line of Tutu's. "When I have some anguish in my life, what keeps me going is that I am a prisoner of hope." And yet this hope "is not something that just comes readymade from heaven," but is hard~won through diligent practice. "It's like muscles," he continues, "that have to be exercised in order for them to get the right tone and to be strengthened." The Dalai Lama agrees, saying "Growth...takes time, minute by minute, day by day, month by month, decade by decade."
Thupten Jinpa, the Dalai Lama's longtime translator, has some key moments in the film as well. "Every single human being is exactly the same," he states, "vulnerable to pain, fear, unhappiness, and aspiring to be happy, to seek connection, to find meaning, to find love. That is the fundamental human condition, and compassion speaks to that reality of who we are...The key to joy is to get in touch with your own natural compassion and to live from there, to find a way to live from there."
So as we live lives filled with challenges within a society that deeply struggles, let us continue the work of these two marvelous examples of what human beings can be. Let us be prisoners of hope ourselves.
But what exactly does it mean to be a prisoner of hope? For me, it means to let hope claim us and lead us, to choose again and again to seek the very real good that exist despite the darkness, to live from that good and for that good, and to let it flow within our own lives. It means to remember that, despite heartaches and horrors, the apparatus for compassion and joy lives within us. And it means to commit to choosing to live more consistently from that place.
It means, too, that we must also direct this hope inward, being kind to ourselves and never losing sight of our potential, even as we miss the mark repeatedly. "You are made for perfection," Tutu assures us. "You are not yet perfect. You are a masterpiece in the making."
The masterpiece~in~the~making that is me sends love and gratitude to the masterpiece~in~the~making that is you. Thank you for all that you do and all that you are. Thank you for the times you get it right, and for the times you fail and choose to try again.
Thank you, thank you, thank you so!
💜
Leia
Here's the link to Mission: Joy
